Editor. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
On Tuesday, four Republican lawmakers asked Facebook, Twitter and Google to turn over any studies they've done on how their services affect children's mental health.
This follows a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittees last week, in which top company executives discussed their content moderation practices in the wake of the siege of the Capitol in January.
This was reported by Reuters news agency, which added that Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the committee's ranking Republican, asked the CEOs of the technology companies at the hearing if their firms had conducted internal research on children's mental health.
In turn, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he believed the company had conducted such research, while Twitter's Jack Dorsey said it had no such studies.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company consulted with outside experts and invested "a lot of time and effort in these areas.
Reuters said that in the letters sent to the companies on March 30, McMorris Rodgers asked for copies of any relevant internal investigations or communications, as well as information on any contractors and partners involved.
In addition, he said, the lawmakers asked for any research the companies have done on how competing products affect the mental well-being of children under 18.
The applications include Google's YouTube Kids and Facebook's Instagram, which is developing a version for under-13s.
The letter, also signed by Republicans Robert Latta, Gus Bilirakis and Morgan Griffith, asks the tech giants to respond to the petition and request for information by April 16.
