00:03Some dogs aren't just best friends, they're lifesavers.
00:07If I go to the bathroom by myself, he'll either scratch at the door or bark at the
00:11door to try to get attention to the fact that I'm by myself.
00:15And he will also alert before a panic attack and will interrupt self-harm behaviours.
00:21Alexis Spence brought Draco home eight years ago after ending up in hospital with depression
00:25and eating disorder and thoughts of suicide, which she says were caused by an addiction
00:30to Instagram.
00:31There really needs to be accountability because one in five people will die from anorexia
00:38and it's going to be a constant fight to not be that statistic.
00:41Her parents are now suing Instagram's parent company Meta on her behalf.
00:46The CEOs of these social media companies are destroying an entire generation and how many
00:52more generations are they going to destroy just so that they can have deeper pockets.
00:58They're part of a historic wave of litigation in the US against the tech giants, which is
01:03leading to a major reckoning.
01:04In a landmark case in March, a jury in California found Meta and Google negligent for intentionally
01:10designing addictive platforms that caused mental health issues in a young girl.
01:15Meta is now appealing that verdict and has repeatedly maintained it prioritises the safety of children.
01:21But the case is expected to trigger a wave of similar lawsuits.
01:25They know that their platforms are addictive.
01:28They're designed to be so.
01:30Matthew Bergman represents more than 1,200 clients across the US as well as Australia and
01:35the UK and wants to see the United States adopt similar bans to those two countries.
01:41If you keep kids off social media, as many kids as you can keep off for as long as you
01:46can keep them off, you're going to save lives.
01:48But national legislation in the United States has stalled in Congress for months and critics
01:53say the Australian experience isn't helping the case.
01:57It's not working.
01:58It's backfiring.
01:59Not only are many children still finding ways to access social media and particularly less
02:07regulated platforms, which might mean greater risk of exposure to the supposed harmful content.
02:13Alexis Spence and her family want US lawmakers to consider an Australian style ban.
02:19There's restrictions for buying cigarettes, there's restrictions for gambling, but there's
02:24no age restrictions for the algorithm that's being pushed and is promoting these things.
02:29A call for protection at a vulnerable time.
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