. >> a really striking moment there from zuckerberg, snapchatted ceo evan spiegel also apologize to families who children have died after buying drugs on the platform. it is clear at this point that the apologies, the existing measures are not enough for lawmakers. lawmakers push the ceos to commit to endorsing a number of potential proposed legislation, including the kids online safety act, the stop child sexual assault material act, and i think the question for me coming out of this hearing is that we heard so many different proposed legislation, proposed option of how to hold this company accountable, that i'm wondering if the lawmakers are going to be able to coalesce around one plan of action that they can really move forward and make progress on forest. >> we are going to ask that of the senator, along with a parent who is in that senator -- room in just a moment. thank you so much for breaking this down for us. >> is lawmakers are grilling the ceos, let's talk about why the issues are so critical. why are we paying so much attention to to this? in a research survey from december, you

i'm evan spiegel, the cofounder and ceo of snap. we created snapchat, an online service that is used by more than 800 million people worldwide to communicate with their friends and family. i know that many of you have been working to protect children online since before snapchat was created, and we are grateful for your long-term dedication to this cause and your willingness to work together to keep our community safe. i want to acknowledge the survivors of online harms and the families who are here today who have suffered the loss of a loved one. words cannot begin to express the profound sorrow i feel that a service we designed to bring people happiness and joy has been abused to cause harm. i want to be clear that we understand our responsibility to keep our community safe. i also want to recognize the many families who have worked to raise awareness on these issues, pushed for change, and collaborated with lawmakers on important legislation like the cooper davis act, which can help save lives. i started building snapchat with my

>> reporter: snap ceo evan spiegel also aggressively questioned. >> did you or anyone else at snap really see that the platform was a perfect tool for sexual predators? >> senator, that behavior is disgusting and reprehensible. >> i am very happy with the senator's questions. they were very pointed, but i was not happy with the responses. >> reporter: for tammy rodriguez, who is 11-year-old daughter died by suicide after severe social media addiction, zuckerberg's apology was not enough. >> when he stood up to apologize, he looked right in my eyes and there is no feeling or emotion. >> reporter: also in the room, shawna pautsch. she is raising her 11-year-old granddaughter, who she says was exploited on snapchat. >> i am very frustrated with listening to these ceos, how many more children do we need to lose in order for this to change? >> reporter: the next step is for lawmakers to pass legislation. senators durbin and graham tell me that they want to reform the law that prevents users from being able to sue these tech companies. senator graham vows to me today that he will bring that to

>> i thought it was very emotional, jake, and it wasn't just him, it was also snapchat ceo evan spiegel who apologized to the families. normally the tension is between the ceos and the members of congress. what made this testimony different was that you had those family members in the audience and they brought a different type of energy, which then forced the ceos into this place where they had to apologize and be very soft. typically in these hearings, they want to come out forceful and defend their firms. with the families there, they were forced to take a position of being sorry and apologetic and that empowered the members of congress to go after them even harder. >> i want to play how south carolina senator lindsey graham opened the hearing. take a listen. >> these are bastards by any known definition. mr. zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, i know you don't mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands. you have a product -- [ applause ] you have a product that is killing people. >> a lot of unanimity on that dais among democrats and republicans. was today a bad day

>> it's interesting, poppy, linda and the ceo of snapchat, evan spiegel, and the ceo of discord, thiss their first hearing ever in front of capitol hill. first and foremost, i want to see how postured they are, how comfortable they are. mark zuckerberg has done this eight times. i think from linda you're going to expect her to hear about the reforms they introduced over the weekend, including building a 100 person safety team in texas to be able to monitor this type of thing. i expect democrats to come down very hard on her, poppy, about other measures that x is taking to, you know, prevent abuse. over the weekend, we saw viral images of taylor swift on x. >> right. >> you know, using ai to make it look like she was doing sort of sexually promiscuous things. x had to sort of block all of taylor swift's searches, it got messy. expect her to have to answer to that. i want to see what she's going to say about x's broader efforts on content moderation. >> it's going to be fascinating to watch on several fronts, and we know you'll be watching all of it. appreciate it as always. >>> new ins

spiegel apologized to the families in the room who say their kids were hurt or even worse, lost their lives because of social media. spiegel apologized to families whose kids bought drugs using snapchat, and zuckerberg, at the urging of senator josh hawley, told the families he's sorry for what they've gone through but neither of the executives squarely took responsibility. >> i'm so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies. [applause] if -- >> [inaudible] the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we're investing so much -- [inaudible] efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things that your families have had to suffer. >> reporter: but lawmakers are placing the blame on social media companies and their ceos. they're clearly frustrated by these executives and by the fact congress hasn't passed any substantial the legislation to protect kids and their mental health on these platforms. >> for years you've been coming in public and testifying under oath that there's absolutely no link, your product is wonderful, the science is

and evan spiegel is going to endorse this kids online safety act, which would require tech firms to provideore parental controls. this is a piece of legislation that has drawn some concern for potentially being an issue when it comes to privacy. and so, there's been some concern from the aclu and others that this would potentially lead to censorship. so interesting positions on which will will emerge from the forefront. i do expect there to be a push for action. >> here's my question. they're all going to outline the numerous steps they're taking to make your platforms safer for kids, right? and how it's been a priority and they've been working towards this. is that working or is there evidence that they're failing? >> there's evidence that there's just a proliferation of this content. and even if they're getting better at catching it, there's just more and more of it. to cite some of the number here. the reports of child sexual abuse material on online platforms grew from 32 million in 2022 to a record high of more than 36 million in 2023. and a lot of the problem is this isn't just a dome

we also have evan spiegel. this is live coverage on cspan3. >> members of the senate judiciary committee are arriving here with different ceos, talking about child sexual explication. the hearing comes amid roman concerns that social media is harming america's youth. the story says that the u.s. surgeon general issued a public health advisory saying that social media use presents a profound risk of harm for teen and kid's mental health. in written testimony, soderbergh -- mark zuckerberg announced that meta has introduced controls for how long children can use their services. we will hear from him, and the ceos of snap, tiktok, discord, and capital ask in a few minutes. >> speaking on the senate judiciary committee will come to order. i think all those in attendance. i want to preface my remarks by saying i have been in congress for a few years. senator graham has as well. if you do not believe this is an idea whose time has come, take a look at the turnout here. today, the senate judiciary committee will conti