weekend. as millions we learn how text messages can help teens quit. then, what is being done to combat the rise of sexually

explicit images and deepfakes posted without consent. and how the fight over restricting books in schools and libraries is playing out in indiana. >> i worry that students will not get the legal that they wa, and the materials that they need. i've always tried to make sure students can see themselves. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the news hour.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and i contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: good evening. i'm stephanie sy. john yang is away. an israeli airstrike in gaza hit a school, killing at least 80. the strike happened during morning prayers, according to witnesses. it israeli defense forces say hamas militants were operating out of the school. hamas disputes the claim. a newly released a 911 call during the 2022 mass shooting at robb elementary school reveals a family member of the gunman tried to intervene in the shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers. records released as part of a

lawsuit against the city of uvalde, texas shows the shooters uncle asked a 911 dispatcher to speak with him in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. the call came in about 10 minutes after the shooting stopped. at the paris olympics, the u.s. women's soccer team beat brazil. the first 11 title is claimed since 2012. valerie swanson's goal early in the second half put team usa on top. it now has a record five olympic gold medals and women soccer. on the track, masai russell added to the american gold medal count in a photo finish in the 100 meter hurdles. team usa picked up gold in the women's and men's four by 400 meter relays. but i u.s. gymnast may be losing her metal. the international gymnastics federation said romanian gymnas anna barbeau suit came in third in the women's floor exercise final last saturday. not american jordan giles. tiles would've -- was awarded

the bronze after team usa made a last-minute scoring appeal that has now been nullified. it is left to the olympic committee what happens. and longtime google executive and former youtube ceo susan widgets he has died. she had lung cancer. she played a key role i the success of google, coming on as one of the first employees after renting her garage to google's founders. for almost a decade, she was ahead of youtube, which she urged google to acquire. susan, also a wife and mother of five, was 56 years old. still to come. the rise of explicit images online made public without consent. and the fight over book restrictions in indiana schools and libraries. >> this is pbs news weekend from w eta studios in washington. home of the pbs news hour. weeknights on pbs.

>> there is new evidence a free texting program may help teens quit e-cigarettes. also known as vaping, more than 2 million american middle and high school students now use e-cigarettes. a clinical trial found teens enrolled in the this is quitting anonymous text message program were 35% more likely to report giving up vaping after seven months. dr. amanda graham is the principal investigator of the study and chief health officer at truth initiative. a nonprofit aimed at preventing youth nicotine addiction. dr. graham, thank you for joining us. the program has been up and running for several years. how many teens have enrolled, and how did you reach them? >> we launched in january of 2019. since then, over 780,000 young people have enrolled. this is a program that served 18 to 24-year-olds, and we see tens

of thousands and every month. the program is promoted through the truth campaign. the naonal public education campaign that we have run at truth initiative since 1999. that reaches young people where we know they are spending the majority of their day, on social media. >> briefly describe how this texting program works, and how did you designed it specifically for the target audience, which is young people? >> this is a quick vaping program we designed to meet the needs of young people. it delivers proven behavior jean -- change techniques, things we know are effective for helping people break a nicotine addiction and deliver it through text messaging, which is the weight young people prefer to communicate. the program is tailored by age, device type they are using, and their quit date, which ensures

we are delivering relevant support all throughout their quitting journey. it's a very interactive program. we deliver open ended questions, true-false questions, yes, things designed to engage young people through the process of using the program. and it is highly tailored. one of the things i will say that is unique to the program is we've received tens of thousands of submissions from other program users wanting to support young people. and we folded their tips a advice and encouragement back into the program to convey that a lot of other young people are quitting and that quitting successfully is possible. stephanie: teen smoking, as you know, has been a problem for decades. how do e-cigarettes present a different challenge than traditional cigarettes in trying to get teens to stop?

>> one of the challenges has been the very rapid evolution of these devices. over the past five or six years, we know that disposable devices in particular have evolved to deliver much larger doses of nicotine, much stronger doses of nicotine. and they are relatively inexpensive. and we know that disposable e-cigarettes are the products young people are using most. with cigarettes, there was always a clear signal to the end of a smoking episode. when you got to the end of a cigarette. with these big, chunky devices, some of them contain the average amount of nicotine you would find in seven to 14 packs of cigarettes, a massive amount of nicotine. that has really changed the game for young people today. stephanie: these were originally marketed as somehow safer than cigarettes. now you have governments and

bands on the flavorings, yet they still seem to be so prevalent. >> they are very popular among young people. flavors are something we know attract adolescents to using e-cigarettes. and they often don't know that most e-cigarettes do contain nicotine and that nicotine is highly addictive. we also know that nicotine and these products are things that young people turn to thinking it will help alleviate stress, anxiety and boredom. so it is really important to get information specifically to young people that there is no safe level of nicotine use. there is a different story when it comes to adult smokers and where there may be evidence emerging that e-cigarettes may help some smokers quit. so there is a very fine line to tread in public health and how to craft the right message that

warns young people about the dangers, but leaves open the opportunity for smokers. >> how effective is something like this texting program compared to something like nicotine replacement therapy that you would see a full on nicotine addict that was an adult turning into? >> this is the first study of its kind, the first evidence we have about what works for adolescence to help them quit vaping. what we saw was about a 10% difference between participants randomized to this text message intervention. about 38% of them quit. compared to about 28% in the control arm. what i will say is many clinicians are prescribing nicotine replacement therapy for adolesces off label. their support from some of the national bodies because we know a combination of medication and behavioral support can be most effective.

stephanie: that is dr. amanda graham with the nonprofit truth initiative. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. stephanie: sexual images posted online without one's consent have long been a problem. starting with revenge for an. but deepfake and ai technologies ability to manipulate photos and videos has made things worse. even taylor swift has been a victim of ai generated sexual images. now google has announced new steps to combat sexually explicit deepfakes in their search results pray there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for this complex problem. a senior writer at wired has been reporting on all of this and joins us now. thank you for joining us. how quickly have we seen the rise of nonconsensual sexual images online, and what is driving this? >> it is a huge problem.

the doubling of these reports over the last couple of years is what we have seen. in places like the u.k.. stephanie: it is also driven in part by the poor and industry. it is now part of the porn economy. people are paying to download images and videos of this nature. >> the nonconsensual nature yes. i would draw us distinction between porn and image-based sexual abuse, which is not considered porn. porn is generally viewed as more consensual. stephanie: 96 percent of deepfakes are sexually explicit and feature women who did not consent to the creation of the content. who is most vulnerable to being victimized in this way? >> it is everyone. there has been recent surveys that have shown it is man, young

boys, there is a huge trend of sextortion happening. anyone who has their photo on the internet. which at this point is pretty much all of us. stephanie: google said it will reduce the prominence and relevance of deepfake images in its searches. that addresses deepfakes, but what about actual images that are used without consent? does google go far enough to address those victims? >> google already takes the measures they applied to deepfakes. what it reported is the key issue is there are numerous ideas on the table that google could adopt to reduce the burden on victims of image-based sexual abuse. these are ideas proposed by survivors, their advocates, even employees within google. google has refused to adopt these ideas. in part because they are worried about over censorship, worried as coming off as too much of a

regulator of the internet. there are some basic ideas that it is unfathomable why they hav not pursued them. stephanie: you use the term image-based sexual abuse. can you describe some of what happens to victims who find themselves in this situation? >> it is people who might send an image consensually that they have taken themselves, a selfie, and they share it with a friend. and that friend is seeking revenge, something goes wrong in that relationship, they post it online. it could be surreptitious recordings of people. a number of ways someone could be suffering from this issue. in the big easy -- then the big issue is they have to go to the place they were traumatized, go to the internet and find these images, try and get it taken down. it is a lot of burden on the actual victims or survivors to get rid of all of this material from the internet. it takes years and years sometimes. stephanie: that is something parents deal with when we talk

to children. if your photo shows up online, it could be there forever. how difficult is the process for victims to take this stuff down, and how willing are the technology companies to meet victims halfway and help them? >> one of the things that is remarkable is there is a whole cottage industry of companies that have popped up, charging sometimes thousands of dollars per project or initiative to help victims get their images taken down. this problem is so bad, there is an economy that has be created around it. these companies help the victims find the images, they even use ai to automatically find images that pop up, they immediately send takedown notices. but it is a pain. sometimes companies ask for identity verification. you have to send them their id. or they might question whether it was actually nonconsensual. maybe you have been an only fans

creator, and then you have images of yourself leaked online. google might question if you are still commercializing those images. it is a mess that these survivors have to go through. stephanie: besides tech companies, who else can be addressing this problem? is it a law enforcement and regulatory policy problem as well? >> absolutely. one of the things i heard consistently from employees at google recording my story is why our law enforcement doing more to go after the criminals? why haven't we criminalized more of this behavior across the country? most states have criminalized aspects of this. but there is certainly not enough effort from law enforcement to go after the underlying criminals. in part because sometimes they may be overseas, or even when they are brought to justice, you can actually get them in jail or get them to pay of the damages they are supposed to. stephanie: that is a senior

advisor at wired joining us. >> glad to be here. stephanie: as the school year gets underway, 13 popular books were banned at utah's public schools this week under a new law. it is one of many moves around the country threatening to reshape school libraries. lee gaines of wfyi reports on how indiana teachers may be criminalized for providing books deemed harmful. >> it is a parent's decision what their child is going to be reading. >> this is totally inappropriate for k-2 students to be discussing this with anybody but their parents. >> last year, indiana governor eric holcomb signed a controversial book restriction bill that made two sweeping changes. first, it is now easier for community members to request the removal of books from schools

they believe are inappropriate. second, if a teacher or school library and provides a student with a book their parent believes is harmful, and a prosecutor agrees, they could be charged with a crime, and they cannot use the book's educational value as a defense. indiana republican state senator jim thoms co-auored the initial legislation. >> these were pornographic books , something you would probably see in adult bookstores. >> efforts to restrict kids and teens access to certain types of books are happening across the country. pen america, a nonprofit that advocates for free expression my documented nearly 6000 instances of book bands in 41 states and 247 public school districts over two years. 30 7% of the banned books included characters of color with themes of race and racism. 30 6% included lgbtq characters

or themes. >> distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. jonathan freedman says indiana's law does not ban specific types of content from schools, but it creates a sense of fear and anxiety among educators. >> none is telling them you better not have textbooks or books with sexual content on the shelves, but it is clear that kind of material will be targeted. stephanie -- >> so there is a fear the legislation will lead to the removal of books like that. either because parents complain about them, or because educators worry they will get in trouble for keeping those type of books in their collection. >> will maybe educators should worry. maybe it should have the children afraid. if these hand that -- books are in the hands of a minor child.

>> this targeting prompted leah johnson to open her own bookstore. which stocks frequently banned titles. >> in retrospect, i can identify not having books that reflected my experience did the bleaching the way i thought about myself and my position in the world. >> johnson is trying to fill that gap by writing stories about queer black girls. her debut novel, you should see me in a crown, follows the story of a black queer high school girl. the book received critical acclaim. it was also one of about 50 titles put under investigation by the oklahoma attorney general because of complaints from parents and conservative groups that they contained obscene materials. >> there is no content in the book that could realistic be viewed as obscene, except for the fact it is queer. and to a lot of people, queer this is apparently obscene.

>> the oklahoma attorney general dropped the investigation. but for johnson, the surge in book challenges in the state laws that support them are an essential threat. >> it is not about the removal of books from the shelves, it is about the removal of queer people from pubc life. it is about making queer people ashamed and afraid and driving them back into the closet. >> indiana's law has also sparked worry among librarians. in rogers is the president of the indiana library federation. she's a high school library and who has made it a point to soccer shelves with a diverse range of literature. do you have anything in this collection that could potentially fall under the category of obscene or harmful as defined by indiana law? >> i've never had items that would be considered obscene by law in my collection. do i have books someone may find objectionable -- objectionable is not the same thing as obscene. perhaps i do.

because people have different views about things. people have different feelings. >> while she doesn't believe this law affects her ability to do her job right now, rogers worries about the future. >> i worry that students will not get the reading materials they want, and they will knock at the reading materials they need. i've always tried to make sure students can see themselves on the library shelf. >> bruce boyd is a resident of noblesville indiana who describes himself as a christian missionary. boyd told me he thinks books that featured diverse representations of gendeand sexuality could be harmful to kids. >> in a public library, in a christian nation, i think that -- my opinion -- i feel like the standard has been set. and if we are going to be a christian nation, we need to abide by the christian centered. >> but boy's perspective is not

one shared by everyone in the indianapolis suburbs. >> my name is max, i'm 16. >> max or their local public library board approved a new rule in late 2022 to banned books that contain sex, drug, and alcohol use, repeated profanity, and violence from the children and teen sections in the library system. the policy led to the relocation of nearly 2000 books from the youth section to the adult collection. max described it as outrageous. we are not showing max's face to shield them from potential harassment. >> the first book i read was not the reason i realized i was trans. it was just nice to see once i realized that, and i see it represented in a book. now that it is not being represented, it may be harder for people to realize or even feel safe in their own identity. that is my concern. >> the american library association documented over 432 unique book titles targeted for censorship in 2023. that represents a 65% increase over 2022 numbers.

and the highest ever recorded since the ala began tracking this data to decades ago. of the 10 most challenged books in 2023, 7 were challenged because they contained lgbtq content. and all 10 were claimed to contain sexually explicit content. >> it seems really ill thought out. >> following backlash, several conservative members have either quit or were not reappointed. in november 2023, the board voted to rescind the policy that banned certain books from the youth section of the library. >> what make me hopeful is the fact a lot of other people my age who are gen z, we have access to the internet and we know how much power that can hold. i think we have the power to stop this if we all pitch in. >> legislative efforts to control the types of activities children have access to in

schools and libraries continue across the country. including indiana. legislation was filed in early 2024 that targeted libraries and sot to define what was harmful to kids. but the bills did not get any traction this year. still, republicans like state senator jim tom's are adamant libraries and schools continue to offer inappropriate content to kids. >> i would say this, if you have been in these libraries, you are on the wrong side of things. but you're entitled to your -- >> there are library and educators, authors, and parents determined not to let lawmakers restrict wha young people have access to. leah johnson says her goal with votes is to be a steadfast home for titles that have been the target of bands. >> my hope is that this is the beginning of what is going to become the new -- full of people

who look like me and move through the world the way i move through the world. >> for pbs news weekend, i'm lee gains in indianapolis. ♪ stephanie: and that is our program for tonight. i'm stephanie sy. for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us. see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by. >> consumer cellular. this is sam, how may i help you? this is a pocket dial. somebodies pocket thought i would let you know with consumer cellular, you get nationwide coverage with no contract. that is kind of our thing. have a nice day. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>>gabirel: we are at the very first stop on our road trip. >>tomi: for the next four weeks, we're going to be going across the country from montana to boston. the theme of the road trip is l about imagining the future, and we're looking at it through the lens of health equity. >>jackie: we are talking to people in biotech and people that you wouldn't traditionally think of in the health space,