good evening I'm omna Nas Jeff Bennett is away on the news hour tonight the Senate passes a bipartisan bill for Aid to Israel and Ukraine but Hardline immigration politics threaten its future in the house doctors Sound the Alarm about a cheap and easy to find supplement known as gas station heroin part of a growing group of unregulated and potentially addictive products and Fresh Off reelection the president of El Salvador continues his gang Crackdown which has already fueled Mass arrests and concerns about democracy the challenge is helping people who have been subjected to the terror of gangs for decades process what might have been lost in exchange for that [Music] security major funding for the PBS NewsHour has been provided [Music] by the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions and Friends of the newsour including Kathy and Paul Anderson and Camila and George Smith card is a proud supporter of public television on a voyage with card the world awaits a world of flavor diverse destinations and immersive experiences a world of leisure and British style all with card's white star [Music] service the John S and James Elight Foundation fostering informed and engaged communities more at kf.

org and with the ongoing support of these individuals and [Music] 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 welcome to the newsour a big day on Capitol Hill where early this morning US senators passed a 95 billion plan to fund Ukraine Israel and other foreign aid and where tonight the House of Representatives plans another attempt at impeaching Homeland Security secretary alejandre maoris our Lisa de jardan is there and she joins me now so Lisa it's fair to say just a few days ago it wasn't even clear that this bill could get through the Senate what happened right there was a rare weekend session after that tumultuous week last week and after an overnight work that ended in a 6 AM vote this morning where overwhelmingly the senate in fact did vote to pass this Ukraine and foreign aid Bill Let's quickly remind folks what's in it it's about a 95 billion doll Bill the largest amount in there is for Ukraine $60 billion then there's also money in here for Israel $14 billion just under $10 billion for humanitarian Aid that does include for civilians in Gaza and there are sanctions and penalties for fentanyl for um International operations and perhaps some countries if they're found to be complicit with fentanyl now here's what happened in the end this was a matter of senators who were veteran Senators feeling like there was a complete need to support Ukraine let's look at who voted for this today the Republican Senators there were 22 of them you can see looking into those faces that is a range a full spectrum from very conservative to more in the middle for senators now I want to look at this group a different way another important way the map of where these senators are from look at that Senators supporting this Ukraine foreign aid Bill come from really kind of the middle of the country and the Heart of the Republican uh kind of party as well as magga country Trump country many of these are Big Trump states in the end what we saw here 70 votes on for this bill all of this the culmination of zalinsky coming personally pleading with Senators he was able to get enough more than enough Republican votes in the Senate today the lease of the bill now moves to the house how strong is the opposition to that bill there and how are President Biden and other supporters of the plan taking all that on there is very strong opposition by some Republicans for a variety of reasons here in the house there is going to be quite a climb and it will be an obstacle already the White House President Biden aware of this took this on today and he said that funding Ukraine is an existential matter not just for Ukraine but for the world if we don't stop Putin's appetite for power and control in Ukraine he won't limit himself just to Ukraine and the cost for America and our allies and partners are going to rise for republicans in Congress who think they can oppose funding for Ukraine and not be held accountable history is watching now the opponents however some of them say that they want other things added to this bill but those who oppose the Ukraine Aid specifically say that they think this is a misplaced priority here's Senator Rand Paul speaking late last night the more accurate title for this bill would be Ukraine First America last because they're prioritizing the border of Ukraine over the border of the United States now here's where it gets even more interesting and difficult speaker Mike Johnson of the house has said today and I've confirmed that he will not bring up this senate pass Bill even though it got 70 votes an overwhelming vote in the Senate why he says it needs to have some kind of Border elements in it so that isn't really a critique of the Ukraine funding Israel any of it he again is trying to bring in that border element and a reminder on I don't have to tell you it was House Republicans who originally said these bills must be linked Ukraine and the Border but it was also Republicans who walked away from the compromise Bill last week in the Senate now here we are again with Republicans saying it has to be back in a bit of whiplash here and and a difficult position I think for Ukraine allies navigating here Lisa given all that is there any way that we can know what to expect in the house on this bill let me go through the the options there are options here the first one as I mentioned is that house Speaker Mike Johnson could bring this up for a vote let's rule that out he has said he won't do that right now now the next option is there could be what's called a discharge petition if a majority of the house signs a petition they could force a vote on this bill and I am told the votes are there for that right now however it's a question of timing whether and when that could happen because here's the other option the house could actually float a different Bill perhaps some other compromis on the border and tonight i'mna I did speak to house armed services chairman Mike Rogers a republican he said that's what he wants to do he wants to move away from the house version of border security and come up with a new compromise is there time for that Ukraine allies say no but that idea is putting a pause on the other mechanisms that could get this bill through the house the votes are here it's a question of how if and when this Senate Bill moves as we mentioned earlier Lisa the House Republicans are again tonight going to try to vote to impeach Homeland Security secretary mayorcas they tried and failed last week what has changed since then one thing has changed uh Representative Steve scales of Louisiana the number two in the house is expected to attend he was out because he's been receiving cancer treatment last week his vote could make the difference and should make the difference for House Republicans in order to get just enough to pass this impeachment resolution if there are no travel problems we do expect the house to take that vote and move forward on impeachment tonight Lisa de jardan on Capital Hill tonight Lisa thank you you're welcome in the day's other headlines the labor Department's latest look at the US economy raises new questions about just how fast inflation is easing consumer prices in January were up 3.1% from a year ago smaller than the annual increase in December but month-to-month Prices rose 3/10 of a percent and that was slightly more than in December analysts attribute much of it to Rising costs of homes rentals and hotel rooms on Wall Street the inflation numbers raised fears that interest rates will stay higher for longer than expected the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 524 points or 1.3% to close at 38272 the NASDAQ fell 1.8% and the S&P 500 also dropped 1.3% a winter storm disrupted schools commutes and flights across much of the Northeast today snow fell from New York City to Massachusetts and parts of Pennsylvania got 15 in the storm also brought winds gusting to 60 M an hour and coastal flooding in some areas many government offices and schools closed and more than a thousand flights were cancelled the heads of the CIA and Israel spy agency discussed a possible ceasefire in Gaza today with the leaders of Egypt and Qatar the session in Cairo came as Israel threatens an allout ground assault on Rafa where some 1.4 million Palestinians are Sheltering more of those refugees packed up and left today after shelling overnight Israel said it's working on plans to move them and US officials insisted again that they be protected any credible plan that could be executable would have to take into account their physical movement safe movement as well as um uh proper uh substenance for them you know food water medicine access to to Health Care also today the state department said its investigating reports that Israeli forces killed a 17-year-old Palestinian American in the West Bank on Saturday another Palestinian American teen was killed in the West Bank last month the Pentagon says defense secretary Lloyd Austin has been released from the hospital and has resumed his duties Austin was being treated for bladder complications from prostate cancer surgery he had canceled a trip this week to meet with NATO ministers on Ukraine Aid flight attendants rallied at Major us and British airports today in a push for higher wages pickets went up at 30 airports total in the dayong protest attendants argue that Pilots have scored big labor deals but C Crews have gone unrewarded a special congressional election in New York is being closely watched tonight as a possible bellweather for the fall elections Democrat Tom swazi faces Republican Mazy pilip in a contest with a heavy focus on the influx of migrants the winner replaces Republican George Santos who was expelled from the house in December over charges of corruption and stealing campaign cash in New Orleans today was Marty grow ra Fat Tuesday the grand finale of Carnival season all day long floats paraded through the French quarter and down major thoroughfares as always the centuries old tradition featured elaborate costumes live music and colorful bead chains and the Reconstruction of paris's famed notam Cathedral has reached a new Milestone scaffolding is being removed from the top of the medieval Landmark for the first time since a devastating fire in 2019 it reveals a new Spire with a Golden Rooster and cross the cathedral is expected to reopen in December still to come on the newsour AI generated misinformation threatens to endanger election Integrity privacy concerns lead so-called mom fluenc to stop showing their kids on social media actor Jeffrey Wright discusses his Oscar nominated role in the film American fiction plus much more this is the PBS NewsHour from WEA studios in Washington and in the west from the Walter kronite School of Journalism at Arizona State University from rooc calls to deep fakes artificial intelligence is already playing a role in the 2024 election today the Washington Post and axios reported a group of leading tech companies including meta Google and Tik Tok committed to limiting misleading AI content on their platforms Laura Bron Lopez has been covering what this means for the upcoming election and joins me now so Laura how have we seen AI already playing a role in the election last week omna the federal uh Communications Commission ruled that rooc calls using AI generative content are illegal so that comes omna after the New Hampshire attorney general launched an investigation into Robo calls that used AI to impersonate President Joe Biden's voice uh leading leading up to the New Hampshire primary there and that investigation so far traced those Roc calls back to a Texas company called life court but that investigation is still ongoing and last year we saw a number of ads using AI generative content including the RNC the Republican National Committee putting out a beat Joe Biden ad that used AI generative imagery and video to to depict a dystopian future under a second Biden term we also saw uh Ron desantis's the super pack align with Ronda sanz's campaign using AI to mimic Donald Trump's voice and vice versa Donald Trump's campaign putting out video uh using AI that impersonated Ron desantis's voice uh so you're seeing a sweet of AI being used particularly by Republicans and in preparation for this the Biden campaign told me that they've assembled attorneys as well as legal academics to try to be prepared to combat more AI generative content but what are the concerns here when it comes to the election I mean what what do experts tell you about how AI is a Potential Threat to democracy so this is a change in degree and it's not that AI hasn't been used before in past elections but it's that AI generative um tools are now more widely available and they're much more sophisticated so the AI threats in 2024 include things like rooc calls that can clone of voice fishing emails that replicate official templates increasingly realistic deep fake video and photography and then spoof accounts impersonating officials offices and news outlets so the point omna is that unlike 2016 AI is now faster cheaper uh easier to make because of the widely available generative AI tools and I spoke to Katie Ryner who's the senior council at States United democracy a nonpartisan group focused on Election security and she summed up the danger to the election process election officials are already doing their jobs in such an elev ated threat environment they are facing harassment threats of physical violence disruptions to their administration of Elections they're having trouble recruiting sufficient staff and pole workers and ultimately they don't have enough resources so adding artificial intelligence to this mix is potentially going to make these election officials jobs even more difficult it's like pouring accelerant on this already very flammable substance so one example omna is that you may remember that in the aftermath of 2020 2022 there were Republicans and people circulating uh debunked video but video of what they called pull workers cheating or throwing away ballots and so what the what AI gives Bad actors the ability to do is to recirculate that video manipulate it change it to make it look real so those kinds of videos and the emails the images the rooc calls you mentioned are they being targeted at certain groups I mean who is most at risk when it comes to being potentially impacted by AI in an election year the new Power of AI allows Bad actors to Target specific groups and so in 2020 minority communities were targeted with rooc calls that discouraged them from voting but now because AI generative tools are much more sophisticated it allows creators to tailor content specifically to certain communities and make emails and calls just much more convincing well meta announced recently they're going to be flagging images and um AI generated content there but more broadly is there enough being done just to safeguard against this kind of content so even though those companies as you said omna are deciding to label the content they aren't outright Banning it and notably X formerly Twitter has not even agreed to label uh AI generative content that might be fake uh and so I spoke to experts like Lawrence nordon the director of Elections and democracy at Brennan Center for justice and he told me that labeling AI imagery and video is a good first step but that ultimately it's all on the companies to be The Gatekeepers and to be able to protect democracy they I think have the responsibility not only to ensure that um to the extent possible that anything that is generated by AI is labeled uh for the public but to increase their trust and safety teams uh to be on the lookout for um coordinated bot activity that might be disinformation campaigns to be on the lookout for fake news sites and to be taking them down when they find them and I'd really like to see them uh take as much responsibility for our democracy and for the Integrity of our democracy so again policing is all on the tech companies right now because there is no federal legisl legislation mandating tech companies do this they have to do it of their own accord and also there's no federal legislation Banning the use of AI content in political ads and of course even if there were that doesn't stop foreign actors from using it Laura what about people themselves who are seeing this content what can they do to stay vigilant and not get fooled this technology is very confusing for a lot of people and many people may not really understand even the labeling that companies are saying they will put on AI generative content labeling is not always easy to even see on an ad or on videos or on photographs but advice that experts give is to trust with uh known sources so if you see something that you think might be fake floating around on the Internet or on social media or from an influencer go to a known news Outlet also of course if it's a question about voting then go to your local state county uh election official websites great advice important information Laura Bron Lopez thank you so much thank you the Food and Drug Drug Administration has issued warnings about a potentially addictive dietary supplement that's widely available in the US Ali Rogan has the latest the FDA is asking Americans not to purchase or use any products from the supplemental brand Neptunes fix it contains a substance called tianeptine some countries have approved the drug to treat depression and anxiety it's unapproved in the US but readily available on stor shelves and online it's been nicknamed gas station heroin and it can be highly addictive an uptick in use has led the FDA to issue several warnings about tianeptine and its potential side effects including seizures loss of consciousness and death Dr Peter Cohen is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and joins me now thank you so much Dr Cohen can you explain exactly what tnf is sure Ally tnf is a pharmaceutical drug uh originally produced in in Europe as anti-depressant unfortunately at higher levels it can be addictive and uh for that reason has not gotten widespread use it has never been approved for use for any medical reason in the United States if it has not been approved for use how is it that it can be sold in the United States so what we see as a common and uh sadly tragic pattern is that many companies take foreign drugs and introduce them directly to consumers in the United States by selling them as if they are dietary supplements and they just appear on the market and start selling them to Consumers we spoke earlier to two health professionals who have seen patients who have uh been using Tepe and I want to play some of what they told us these patients definitely have increased heart rates they're very agitated um and they will admit that they use a lot of the product so in other words that they're using it very routinely that they've built up such a high tolerance to it and a craving for it that um that they'll go to Great Lengths to get it the presentation of the withdrawal is going to be very similar to somebody who would potentially be going through Oxycodone withdrawal um heroin withdrawal we were putting a fair number of people actually in our intensive care units and we had to put them in there just because they were becoming so agitated uh so confused um there was concerns for heart problems concerns for you know people having seizures and so some people like with many withw patterns may just feel a little bit uncomfortable a fair number of people get very very ill and require very close monitoring with it you heard that last doctor say a fair number of people that he's seeing uh do we have a sense of just how big this problem is with with this substance yeah it it's really ticked up over the last um decade so back before 2015 we had never heard of tanap here and uh Poison Control calls reports to the FDA very serious ones like that were described from seizures to uh stopping breathing to the point of intubation and deaths have all been reported and they're coming in more frequently uh the FDA has issued several warnings over the past six years uh and we should also note here that NEP uh Neptune's fix has agreed to a voluntary recall but is are warnings all that the FDA can do why are they why are their hands seemingly so tied right so there two problems here one is how it got on the market in the first place and that's because there's no need for companies to vet products that they sell as dietary supplements with the FDA before they're being sold that's a major problem and would require a change to the law but there's a second major problem here which is that the FDA has been aware of tantine being imported into the United States since 2015 that's been 9 years and like you mentioned it was in 2018 when they first warned about tnf so the fact that it's been uh many years since the FDA was aware of the risks and has done nothing other than issue uh warnings to Consumers and to the company is frankly embarrassing is their um neglecting their responsibility to protect the public from dangerous dietary supplements does this represent negligence on the part of the FDA or is this simply how the regulatory framework is has been constructed and has existed for so long so the fact that tnf is sold in the United States in the first place back in 2018 there's no negligence on the fda's part that's how the situation is structured a regulatory framework structured However the fact that it's still sold today and the people are still dying and ending up in intensive care units due to tnap Falls completely on uh on the FDA not doing their part ensuring that the dangerous uence are removed from the marketplace several states have already taken the steps of banning tnp do we expect other states to go in that direction unfortunately with the FDA not moving definitively as they need to and they could the uh states are left to fend for themselves to protect their their own citizens against dangerous dietary supplements such as tantine so I would expect more states to move aggressively against these products is there a role that Congress could play in addressing this so Congress could have two very impactful roles number one they could ask the FDA to enforce the law and that is when there's dangerous dietary supplements that they're off they're removed from sore shelves and the FDA uses all their Enforcement Act uh potential including mandatory recalls to do that job the second thing they they would need to do though if we need to if we're going to protect consumers from the next tpe down the road is reform the law so the FDA can at least ensure that products are introduced into the United States dietary supplements are not foreign dangerous drugs there are other dietary supplements out there uh that also are not uh regulated by the FDA or approved uh katum phenibut among among them uh what are your concerns about those substances right so cranum and phenibut are two other drugs that are sold the sagittary supplements but shouldn't be and the FDA is not doing enough to get those Products off S shelves we've actually done a study of fenet where we looked at what happened to brands of fibit before and after FDA warnings well we found that dosages of the fenib but actually increased in the products after FDA warnings so the fda's actions are inadequate to date and they need to do a lot more because it's not just these three products tianeptine katum fenet but more than a dozen other foreign drugs that are being sold currently as dietary supplements in the United States Dr Peter Cohen associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School thank you so much for joining us my pleasure [Music] Ally last week El Salvador's president naib buou was officially reelected in a landslide win buou first came into power in 2019 and for nearly 2 years he's overseen a vast and brutal Crackdown on gangs transforming the nation from one of the deadliest in the world to one of the safest in Latin America but that piece has come at a cost thousands of innocent people jailed and critics say and undermine democracy I traveled with producer Teresa seana Randa to two cities north of the capital of San Salvador to file this report for 2 years Patricia has prayed for her partner's return Victor was one of the more than 75,000 people imprisoned in El Salvador's war on gangs I don't know anything about him and that's what hurts the most because we were a very United Family his absences felt in every room and at every meal in 2022 Victor whose identity were protecting and Patricia's son Rodrigo were arrested they say without evidence for alleged gang ties Rodrigo was just 16 years old what happened in prison they beat me when I had a stomach ache a headache instead of giving me medicine they would take us all out and beat us he says about 70 people shared a single cell but only 10 or so were gang members they were the ones who controlled the cell they would ask for medicine and they got it and to those who weren't anything they would treat us badly those from the neighboring cell would urinate on us and the police wouldn't say anything his stepfather Victor remains in prison police said he had a criminal record for petty crime decades ago but Patricia denies any gang ties she showed us documents she's filed for his release dismissed by the court so Patricia has been Gathering as many character testimonies letters of recommendation from her church from his employer where he worked for 22 years she's been submitting all of this to the courts but so far they've made no difference Victor was swept up as part of President na bu's Crackdown on the gangs that have terrorized El Salvador for more than two decades Waring factions of the MS13 and 18 street gangs killed and extorted civilians with impunity turning El Salvador into the murder capital of the world Nelson RDA is the digital editor of alaro and acclaimed National investigative newspaper for the people who lived on gang control communities for the people who use public transportations for the people who maybe just was in the wrong place in the wrong time it was unbearable na bu swept into power in 2019 in his first year in office the murder rate dropped by half but in March of 2022 a gang killing spree 87 people dead in one weekend bu responded with an iron fist he deployed the military declared a state of exception limiting some rights and empowered police to arrest without a warrant this police officer whose identity were protecting said officers were issued arrest quotas at one point five arrests a day given that we had arrest goals when we no longer found gang members we began arresting people who had nothing to do with gangs and what happens to those people after you arrest them they are detained and we charge them with the crime of unlawful Association a lot of innocent people are still in prison and we have participated in that because we thought they'd be released soon and that has not been the case the majority of them upon being detained yet basically disappeared into the into the prison system family members don't know if they're alive don't know where they are aren't able to contact them Noah Bullock is the executive director of Christo Sal a Human Rights group based in El Salvador they've documented thousands of arbitrary arrests during that state of exception as well as abuse and death in side prisons we spoke during his recent visit to Washington for all those people who are detained what's the recourse like for their families or loved ones what can people do very little what is lost in terms of Rights and Freedoms for Salvadorans in the state of exception uh is the guarantee uh to be able to have a fair trial uh to be able to uh defend themselves uh against against these types of charges um and and for many families it's it becomes a rain of terror that's what the the Catholic bishop Andor called it in San Martin an hour outside of San Salvador Macio Villanova tours us around streets once too dangerous to walk he's mayor of neighboring San Jose guayabal MOS Ras dead people extortion territories controlled by the gangs there was no Freedom here not even for residents there was a state within estate what used to be one of the deadliest areas in the country is now safe enough for children to play just to give you a sense of how dramatically life has changed here people tell us this road used to be essentially a dividing line that Community was controlled by the MS-13 gang this community controlled by the 18 Street gang and for some Crossing would mean a death sentence Villanova who some gang leaders still want dead carries a weapon wherever he goes but K's policies he says have been transformative what about the innocent people who are rounded up and held as part of the state of exception but are completely innocent yes of those detained here are some people who have been released already I have faith in God that those who do not fear and will be judged will be free the government has so far released 7,000 people but thousands of families say their innocent loved ones are still held Mari Bell Amaya last saw her son Jorge Lise a few blocks away from her vegetable stand outside of s Salvador her son had no criminal record she says he was arrested to fill a police quota another mother who was there and whose son was also arrested that day before she left the police station she heard police saying I need one more and that one more was my son no visitors are are allowed at the mariona prison where he's held but once a month Mel makes the trip to Dr off food and clothes he won't get inside each package costs almost $100 about a third of her monthly income after a friend sent her this photo of a much thinner Jorge Lise in a hospital being treated for malnutrition she says she'll spare no expense I can wait but my son cannot anymore I don't understand how they can sleep at night with all these injustices they are creating I will never stay silent why because I don't want a funeral home to call me one day and tell me that my son is in a morg of the tens of thousands arrested the majority have not yet faced trial a new law allows for Mass Trials of up to 900 people at a time Gustavo vioro is El Salvador's Minister of Justice and public security we do gu guarantee that all these people will face Justice a judge decision on whether they are guilty or innocent we are now in the transitional process and we will soon begin the accusations critics say president BK's grip on power has only tightened in his first term buk removed the attorney general and replaced top judges on the Supreme Court who then reinterpreted the Constitution allowing bua to run for a second consecutive term the government has also targeted critics including human rights groups and journalists we have been severely attack we have gotten death threats the uh interamerican Commission of Human Rights thinks that our lives and our jobs are in danger in Salvador but Salvadorans now free of gang control support buer just last week he won re-election with nearly 83% of the vote we literally went from being the most dangerous country in the world to being the most secure in all the Western Hemisphere the security results are felt by everyone um I I think the the the challenge is though uh is helping people who have been subjected to the terror of gangs for decades uh process what it might what might have been lost in exchange for that security what is a second term under bu mean for democracy in El Salvador the end what would you call a system where one person calls all the shots where there's no separation of powers after February 4th you would hard you would find it really hard to call it a democracy today the streets of El Salvador are largely quiet and peaceful but many worry peace at this cost may not Prevail for [Music] long on platforms like Tik Tok Instagram and YouTube so-called mom fluenc share parenting tips and candid moments raising their kiddos it's part of a multi-billion dollar online influencing industry and given its focus on kids raises questions about privacy and consent Stephanie Sai reports on a trend among some of those content creators to avoid showing their kids we're getting ready for day one of potty training my 2-year-old she's 25 months and on Tik Tok Deja Smith has built a following by posting about her Life as a stay-at-home mother of a toddler I'm also a firsttime mom and don't know what the hell I'm doing I'm just a regular mom middle class you know just uh living kind of like a boring life every day so people people love that but one thing you won't see in her videos at least not anymore is her daughter's face a decision she made about a year into being a content creator I was getting a lot of interaction under my videos that were just specifically uh pertaining to my daughter I always wanted to base my content around me um that's my whole point of of it's centered around me you know um so when people are starting to center it around my daughter that's when it got uncomfortable for me Smith scrubbed her social media of her daughter's face even making content about the challenge of keeping a toddler out of her videos back up back up Smith is part of a growing Trend among so-called M fluenc choosing to not show their kids in their content when I first started doing it like 12 people were seeing my videos things change when you gain more traction content creator meny doesn't use her last name publicly part of a strategy to protect her kids's identity she's built up a following making tick talks on the importance of emotional validation including where she embodies kids perspectives knock it off I can't deal with this today I can't either obviously it is easier to shows it's easy to play on that parasocial relationship when kids feel when other people feel bonded to your kid and they feel like they know your kid they become that much more of a that much more invested in your life meny says her decision to not show her child is largely because he doesn't have a say it's hard to think about it because we didn't have the internet When We Were Young but if all of my childhood pictures videos were just out for anyone to see and I didn't realize it for the longest time and then all of a sudden I did realize it that would not go over well with me and my parents I know that's how I would feel and so I don't feel comfortable doing it to him you can pick out anything from the closet here that you want Britney Bal has built a large audience on YouTube over more than a decade and made content creation her full-time job my channel has evolved with me and in the motherhood sphere it was very much there was a lot of great information but it was showing the highlights and and the positive moments and of course there is that but I felt like more of just the real and the raw needed to be shared to help these moms not feel alone last August Balin announced to her more than half million subscribers that she would no longer show her three-year-old daughter in her videos I hope that you stay with me and a part of my channel and if you don't that's okay because the only opinion that really matters to me is that of my daughter one thing that really kind of triggered something was meeting another mother at a kids class and her instead of coming to me first meeting my daughter saying her name knowing things about her and you know there was no ill intent from the mother it just made me realize that in the wrong hands this information could be used in a very sinister fashion Balin says that the response has been overwhelmingly positive and that it has not affected her income but she's also made the decision to leave her old videos with her kiddo up for now once something is up it it lives forever whether you're a content creator or you're just posting to Facebook and maybe I'll change my mind one day as a mother as an adult you are always learning and growing and evolving but as of right now the content is still live despite the trend toward removing kids from some mom fluenc or content many children's lives are on display on the internet and some states are responding with new laws last year Illinois passed a first of its kind law requiring parents to set aside a portion of earnings from social media content that features their kids for their kids this year at least seven other states have introduced similar legislation fortessa latifi is a features reporter for Teen Vogue who has been covering all of this and joins me now fortessa it's good to have you on the NewsHour I just read a piece that you wrote titled the kids who had their childhoods made into content it's about the impacts that living one's life on social media has had on some kids now adults tell me some of the stories you uncovered yeah it was really interesting so I talked to a young woman who has grown up on a YouTube channel she first went viral when she was toddler and by the time she was in elementary school her parents had quit their full-time jobs because YouTube was the family business and she told me there's nothing my parents can do now to take back the amount of work I had to put in and that was so striking to me how pervasive is hearing stories like that I mean based on your reporting are you getting the sense that there's like a whole generation of kids who are being exploited online by their parents there is a whole generation of kids that this is affecting and we're just seeing those kids reach adulthood now and start to tell their stories we just heard from some mom fluenc who have decided voluntarily to remove their kids faces from their content what is driving those moms to make that decision and are they in the minority it's just this cultural conversation that's happening around child privacy and what kids consent to and what they can't consent to online and so do we want to be creating these really detailed online Footprints for our kids people are starting to ask that question and it's interesting because I would say that the majority of parent influencers still do show their kids online but we've had some really big creators with millions of followers who have made the decision to take their kids offline and it's interesting because a year or so ago you would never question whether an influencer was going to show their kid online but now it is a question and I think even knowing that it's not a given shows how much the culture has changed just in the last year do you have any sense of how they're followers uh feel about them taking their kids faces offline you heard one mother say that you know viewers of the content kind of relate to seeing the kid do those moms sort of suffer monetarily when they make that decision they do definitely because people want to see their kids they've gotten attached to the kids they are interested in seeing them and so when they don't show them anymore their views may go down they may get less branded content less sponsored content deals and so that is difficult and one thing that I've talked to some several mom influencers about who have told me that people's reaction to them taking their kids offline made them sure that they were doing the right thing so people would say I miss them so much their their Tik Tock aunts and uncles miss them and we love them we just want to see them how could you take them from us and the the intensity of that reaction proved to the parents that they had done the right thing I love that you write in your article that it's maternal Instinct um that made these monf fluenc make that decision there was a law last year passed in Illinois it became the first to require that money made from these videos would be set aside for kids that are featured in them like in a trust fund what are the impacts of that law and how much traction are you seeing for legal protections for children's children of influencers Elsewhere well it's a huge deal because like you said Illinois made history with that bill and with that law it was the first law in the entire country to protect the monetary gains of child influencers so that's a really big deal because we know that often the first one is the most difficult to pass and now we've seen this kind of like mirror happening where now there are seven other states that have introduced laws that would either mirror Illinois or even take it further and have privacy protections um with what is called the right to be forgotten but it's really fascinating because just last year we passed the very first law in the country and now there are seven other states that are working to become the second and so you do see this kind of momentum that came after the Illinois law that just wasn't there before do you think that the tide is really turning toward more protections for kids and teens online I mean a lot of child Advocates would say a three-year-old simply can't consent to being put out publicly on social media even if it's by their parents I do think the tide is changing and I think you can see that even in the comments of influencers who still show their kids like people half of the comments are positive but half of the comments are negative now which is really a huge change I mean last year no one was commenting to these influencers that they were exploiting their children or are you saving money for the kids or how does this work and now you see it and it's half of their comments are asking them to address this kind of elephant in the room um so this controversy is really picking up speed for Tessa latifi a features reporter for Teen Vogue thanks so much thank you for having me [Music] Jeffrey Wright has had one of the most varied and distinguished acting careers of recent decades while best known in supporting roles he's now received his first Oscar nomination as the lead in American fiction a film itself nominated for Best Picture Jeffrey Brown spoke with him for our arts and culture series canvas why are these books here I'm not sure I would imagine that this author Ellison it's black that's me Ellison in American fiction Jeffrey Wright plays thonus Ellison known as monk a black writer who finds himself rejected by Publishers because his novels aren't black enough enough that is for a culture demanding just one kind of black story I'm just going to put them back after you leave don't you dare it's been in some ways uh energizing for the actor who brought us to his favorite neighborhood Cafe Brooklyn moon in Brooklyn's Fort green section the film presented a new kind of role one that often hits close to home I usually have to uh reshape myself to find a character I like working that way I like to create characters you know a different uh man from one film to another it allows me to be um useful in many across many different genres and get outside your get outside myself and I I like you know playing with with with the mask uh so no this was a this was a unique one yeah look like you could use a scrub I'm clean light starred in the 1996 film basad but he's perhaps made his biggest Mark through His Brilliant almost chameleon likee character roles I live in America leis I don't have to love it in dramas such as angels in America board walk empire and Westworld big Blockbusters including Hunger Games and three Bond films and the quirky world of Wes Anderson in Asteroid City I've had people say I didn't even realize you that was you in the two movies I watched last week I didn't realize you you know I didn't recognize you from one to the other I like that you do like that yeah yeah that you know I like to I like to create you know these characters so much goes on in your face well I think that the most forceful tool um when working on film is the two eyes uh and you know the window so I do try to use those with a certain like kind of subtle intensity you are thinking about that in some sense or you are no I'm just uh expressing story Through The Eyes yo Shir where you going in a hurry like that if and you got to know I was going to the pharmacy in the eyes of Monk an upper middle class writer from a family of doctors bafflement frustration grief why am I the last to know cuz you love them too much American fiction directed by firsttime director C Jefferson who adapted it from peral Everett's novel eraser is partly a sendup of today's publishing industry facing more rejection monk writes an overthe toop Street version of black life using a pseudonym to his shock Publishers love it he's finally got a bestseller except it's not a work he stands by and it's not technically by him we love it what it is very uh black yes that's it this film is certainly at least partly looking at the cliches of black life as as shown in popular culture right did that resonate with you oh oh yeah certainly and I don't think it's restricted to the publishing world or to you know the world of uh of film I think it's across our culture that uh there's preconceptions or misrepresentations of of who we are as individuals I don't think it's necessarily confined to the black experience either this idea of not being seen um I certainly understand the pressures that the character uh feels I don't think that I necessarily share his frustration and rage I think maybe because of the way I work I've been able to you know to work my way around some of those obstacles that have been put in my way I can't complain about my career that resistance that he's up against that you're playing you know that yeah but you haven't experienced it quite as much no I I've experienced it but I don't know maybe I've outsmarted it outsmarted it yeah it's not impossible to do you know how did you how did you do it just better than that just by being better than the resistance to who I am as an artist I've always thought that if if I was good at what I did and I worked hard at it that everything else would flow from that when I was younger as an actor I didn't want to make money I just wanted to you didn't want to make money no it wasn't an interest of mine yeah I wanted to pay my rent but it wasn't you know I wasn't doing it to pursue you know a lot of money I wanted to be good at what I had chosen to do I wanted to be a good actor and I figured everything else would take care of itself right cites the example of other actors who came before him some still active today including Leslie Uggams who in American fiction plays his aging mother with increasing signs of dementia you look fat I know in fact it's the family relationships in the film that most resonated for right books change people's lives his own mother a lawyer who worked for the federal government had died just a year before filming began and a beloved aunt had come to live with him and his family so I had kids and you know trying to make sure that she was well the pandemic rushed in and yeah I was feeling pressure from a lot of sides and you know you kind of as the character in the in the film realizes uh that kind of uh youthful uh uh Blissful delusion that as you get older life will become easier uh yeah I was disabused of not happening no no that that went away Mr wght Jeffy for now at least there's a different kind of swirl in Jeffrey Wright's life as he's FedEd and honored for his latest role is this kind of recognition still important to you yeah I think it's important when your peers and colleagues say Well done when they show appreciation for the work and in this case for the film uh in in such a such a generous way yeah yeah that that has meaning the thing that I like that I've grown to appreciate about working on film is my responsibility when the camera rolls how do you define that responsibility it's to fill up the frame with whatever whatever aspect of the story I'm responsible for but that represents everyone's work it represents the electricians work the Gaffers the grips people who work in the administrative office it's all about what's happening in the frame at any given moment and when it's my responsibility to be that in that place I like it but I like that I'm a part of a larger ho and that's my my gig is to is to uh to tell the story Jeffrey right congratulations and thanks again thank you Jeffrey thank you for having me and thank you for coming in the neighborhood a great conversation and that is the newsour for tonight I'm omna Nas on behalf of the entire newsour team thank you for joining us major funding for the PBS NewsHour has been provided by Consumer Cellular this is Sam how may help you this is a pocket dial well somebody's pocket thought I'd let you know that with Consumer Cellular you get Nationwide coverage with no contract that's kind of our thing have a nice [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] day moving our economy for 160 years years BNSF the engine that connects us Carnegie Corporation of New York supporting Innovations in education Democratic engagement and the advancement of International Peace and security at [Music] carnegie.com this program was made possible by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like [Music] you you're watching PBS

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7sa7SZ6arn1%2BrtqWxzmidnpqiqq6zxYxqamZqYGeBbrzBrGSnnaeotbDB0WadrqScYrKxtdKom55lYWx9eISPaWtpaV8%3D