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Seattle School Sue Social Media Firms Over Kids' Mental Health; Husband Of Missing Mom Searched "How To Dispose" Of Woman's Body; Health Eating Can Cut Rise Of Early Death By 20 Percent. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 10, 2023 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: The Seattle public school system is suing several social media companies alleging their platforms are responsible for a youth mental health crisis. It says it's affecting its ability to fulfill its educational mission.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan joins us now. So, Donie, metro family, as we know, have tried to sue social media companies but this is unusual. An entire school system suing. So, what they say that was causing a big problem.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and what we've seen from, of course, a lot of those previous lawsuits is that this is such a relatively new phenomena, right. You know, we've heard from experts and psychologist who said we don't really know what this is all going to do, being on social media all day is going to do to kids' brains because it's going to take some time to fully understand that. But what we have heard from this school district and I want to read out part of the lawsuit, it said.

Defendants in this case at the social media companies have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth. Their misconduct has been a substantial factor in causing a huge mental health crisis and it goes on to talk about higher rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm.

And look, this might not necessarily be a successful lawsuit. But what it will do is put this, you know, crises really into the national conversation and, you know, if it does go all the way, that the school board we might learn a lot about the discovery process in court about really what is it these companies know. How much work or consideration have they put into designing these platforms to not impact mental health of young people.

BLACKWELL: Yes, some questions have always been in the air about the algorithms and how they treat young people. Let me ask you about another platform. Twitter here, at reinstating the accounts of some well-known election deniers. Who's back on?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, so almost two years to the day since the January 6th attack on the Capitol, we saw a whole ton of accounts getting shut down. Major election deniers, some of which we won't even name here. But, you know, this over the past 24, 48 hours we've seen two very prominent people who played roles in fanning the flames of conspiracy theories in the lead-up to January 6th, all that stuff, the steal nonsense, two-year anniversary, Elon Musk has put them back on the platform with no real explanation. But also, we have heard from at least one of these people, praising what's been happening in Brazil, over the weekend, so an interesting time to re-platform these people. Of course, Elon Musk says he is a free speech absolutist despite banning some journalists from the platform.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Yes, his sense of free speech is situational. Thank you very much, Donie.

O'SULLIVAN: OK.

BLACKWELL: Thanks, Donie.

CAMEROTA: OK, joining us to discuss the Seattle school's lawsuit is clinical psychologist Lisa Stroman. She's the author of "Digital Distress: Growing Up Online." Lisa great to see you. It's fascinating to see the Seattle School District taking matters into their own hands for what they say, what the teachers say they have witnessed in their students. I'll just red a portion of the complaint. That they're filing against, you know, TikTok, Meta, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat.

They say from 2009 to 2019 there was an on average 30 percent increase in the number of students at plaintiffs' schools who reported feeling, quote, so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing usual activity, end quote. As more youth became depressed more youth reported considering suicide making plans to commit suicide and attempting suicide.

[15:35:03]

So, Lisa, I mean, you've studied this obviously. Can all of this be traced to social media use?

LISA STROHMAN, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: I think that we can -- thank you, Alisyn -- look at this as a correlated factor of what we see. And if you look at the recent results of the CDC's 2021 report, they look at this and you can actually see at every moment where you have sad and hopelessness on I national basis with these kids you will see that when Instagram was released and then when Snapchat was released and then when TikTok was released, you see a spike at every moment.

Again, we can't directly as your reporter said say that's a causative factor. But we can look at and say that what we do know is not only do we have two decades of research that show the more time that our kids are on social media, the more anxious they become, the more depressed they become, the more suicidal, the more disordered eating and we can actually take that science and say we can connect it under that purview and hold them accountable for developing these products in that way.

CAMEROTA: That's so interesting. Here's what the Seattle school says in terms of the correlation, how they've connected it. They say, in 2021 parents of teens in Washington state where the plaintiff is located, estimated 47 percent spend between one and three hours on social media platforms. 20 percent spend between three and five hours and 10 percent spend more than five hours a day on social media platforms. So again, as you say, it's -- it feels connected. It feels like there's an association, I don't know if in a court of law, they'll be able to show that that's a direct qualitative. But what do you think it is about social media that degrades teenagers' mental health so much.

STROHMAN: I think that we're kind of in this unique place in history where we have this generation that is growing up and they have always been online and it is their normative place to ask online Siri or Google and ask, you know, all these things. So, they live in that space all of the time.

But when you take a psychological concept like the Ericksonian Development Phases that kids go through and you're looking at the fact that they're actually needing feedback that gives them some sort of response into the world. It is no longer just our families or our local communities, they're going against 4.8 billion people online and so much of that information that they're getting back is quite negative.

And so, I think that if you look at the amount of time they're staying online and you look at the number of students that are failing in classes and decreased test scores, I do think that, you know, the Seattle public schools, I give them -- I take my hat off to them. Because I think that somebody needs to hold them accountable and somebody needs to be able to say we need help. Because all of the Congressional testimony, all of the times we've brought all of these big tech giants and CEOs into the halls of Congress, we still have not been able to get them to regulate this or help us in this fight against what is happening online with our kids.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we'll be watching this very closely to see what happens with this lawsuit. Lisa Strohman, thank you very much. Again, you're the author of "Digital Distress: Growing Up Online." Great to see you.

STROHMAN: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: A Virginia police chief says the mother of the 6-year-old who shot his teacher may face charges. The latest on that investigation next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: New developments in the search for Ana Walshe. That's the missing Massachusetts mother of three. Police say they have recovered several items in the search of a trash facility that are now being tested for a possible connection.

BLACKWELL: Law enforcement sources tell CNN that her husband, Brian Walshe, who's been charged with misleading authorities in the case also searched online about how to dispose of a woman's body. Investigators found a bloody knife during a search of the couple's home and also have surveillance video of him buying cleaning supplies around the time she disappeared. John Miller is CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst. The evidence -- again, he has not been charged with anything relating specifically to her death -- but the evidence piling up against him is certainly troubling, let's say.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, Victor, what you're watching almost in realtime is one clue seems to, you know, come every hour in this case is probably heading to a grand jury this week, maybe as early as today. Where they will start to put this evidence in front of grand jurors and probably move to go beyond the charge, they have right now which is misleading the police in an investigation.

But what you see is a bloody knife, purchases of drop cloths, Tyvek suit, mops, cleaning material and then you have what appears to be a move of those materials to a garbage bin near his mother's house which is, you know, 40 minutes away. And then a search of a dump where that trash was deposited by truck where they found biological material, fabric likely from the drop cloths, what might be a hacksaw. So, that is going to be going into DNA testing. And at this point, you know, her DNA will probably have to be identified by taking samples from her three children, because that will be a direct blood line match.

[15:45:00]

Something very similar to what we saw in the Idaho case just last week.

CAMEROTA: John isn't this what detectives call an open and shut case. A bloody knife, all of these cleaning supplies he bought. He isn't where he said he was going to be. His ankle bracelet tracks him to the dumpster where they're finding all this. This is all so damning.

MILLER: So, it's a very strong circumstantial case. We are watching a come together piece by piece. But without a body and in this case where they believe a body was dismembered or body parts, they still have to establish that this murder occurred and yet all of these elements that appear to be the planning and the cover-up are mounting.

BLACKWELL: So, let's turn to this case of the 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher. The gun came from his parents, his mother purchased it. The police chief there says it's quite possible that the mother could face charges. What happens between now and those potential charges?

MILLER: A couple of things, Victor. One, there'll be an assessment by social services of the home, the home environment, whether the child was safe at that home, whether the child needs particular services. Which is likely in any circumstance where you have a 6-year-old boy who takes a gun armed to school, gets into a dispute, you know, shoots a teacher, that is under Virginia law and common sense probably a child in need of services.

No criminal charge really works against a 6-year-old who has to be able to understand the charges, the criminal justice process, be able to assist in his defense, that's kind of out of the picture at that age. But as your question pinpoints, culpability on the part of the mother, legal firearm, legally purchased by her.

CAMEROTA: But legally stored?

MILLER: Legally stored in the home, but there are no laws in Virginia that have requirements about the storage of guns. Meaning some people want to sleep with that on the bedside table in case the burglar comes through the window at night. But there is a specific law about keeping loaded firearms away from children. And that in the Virginia state law is probably the place where the focus of it. There's going to be a criminal charge against the mother where they'll turn.

CAMEROTA: OK. John Miller, thanks for the update on all of this.

MILLER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: We're ten days into the new year and are you sticking with your healthy eating resolution? A new study suggests --

CAMEROTA: So, you're asking me actually.

BLACKWELL: I'm asking no one in particular.

A new study suggests that you really should. How your diet can cut the risk of early death by 20 percent. That's next.

[15:50:12]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The White House counsel's office is now responding to the news that classified documents were found in President Biden's private D.C. office in November. In a new statement, they say that they're limited in what they can say now because the Justice Department is looking into the matter and that further details may be shared in the future.

CAMEROTA: OK, well, since the news broke, the White House has refrained from commenting.

BLACKWELL: It turns out the secret to living a long life really is in what you eat. A just-released study followed more than 100,000 people for more than three decades.

CAMEROTA: Researchers found that based on your eating habits, you can cut your risk of dying early by nearly 20 percent. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Tara Narula is here. What do we need to eat to live longer?

DR. TARA NARULA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this is very important. They looked at really four different patterns of healthy eating, all of them had kind of similar components. So, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, little to no meat, more plant based. I know you said you were a pescatarian for a few years.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: But he fell off the wagon yesterday.

BLACKWELL: I had one piece of chicken. First time in three years.

CAMEROTA: I want to hear more about that.

BLACKWELL: Thanks for telling everybody.

NARULA: Less added sugar, less saturated fats, less processed food. But the bottom line was that really you could have a flexible approach. You did not have to pick one diet. Any one of these four diets if you adhered to it in this study, there was, as you mentioned, a 20 percent decrease in mortally. And that decrease was for things like cardiovascular disease death, cancer death, neurodegenerative disease death and respiratory disease death. So, really important and it was a very big and long study. So again, more information that just tells us how powerful food is. Food is our medicine and we need to pay attention to that.

But these are really revelations. We've known fruits, vegetables, last meat, stay away from certain types of dairy --

NARULA: It's not a revelation but nobody follows this.

BLACKWELL: That's true.

NARULA: I mean, I'm a cardiologist and I see patients in my office all the time and it's really hard once your 20, 30, 40 years old to change how you've been eating for the last 20 years. And that's why one of the big things we need to do in this country is really start young teaching kids how to build a healthy plate and what these healthy patterns look like. So that it's much easier when people get older because those patterns are built in. But that being said, it's never too late to make those small changes, little choices every day that are smart and building those healthy eating patterns. I love the Mediterranean diet which is one of the ones they talked about here particularly for cardiovascular health. And you can eat like you were in Italy or Greece which sounds like a very nice thing.

CAMEROTA: And is easy. It's just easy. You need to cut out lots of red meat, eat fish and vegetables --

BLACKWELL: The occasional chicken breast.

CAMEROTA: And red wine.

NARULA: A little chicken, yes.

CAMEROTA: And it's good.

NARULA: Or white wine, either one.

CAMEROTA: OK, great. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Or gin. Is gin on the list?

NARULA: In limited amounts. If you drink as a male. BLACKWELL: All right, there we go.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Narula, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So, the classified documents recently found in President Biden's private office from his time as vice president included intel materials related to Ukraine, Iran and the U.K. CNN has exclusive reporting next.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Who wants to be a billionaire? Tonight's Mega Millions jackpot is estimated to be a whopping $1.1 billion.

BLACKWELL: 568.7 million, if you take the lump sum.

CAMEROTA: You know, that's a rip off. Why is it so little? Why isn't it a billion? Like why do you have to pay that much in taxes?

BLACKWELL: You pay your fair share. A winning ticket would be the third largest jackpot in mega millions history.

CAMEROTA: All right, you convinced me.

Meanwhile, actor Tom Hanks debuted his new cocktail during an appearance on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert. The recipe only has two ingredients, Diet Coke and champagne.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[16:00:00]

TOM HANKS, ACTOR: We were debating what the name of it should. And I came up with it because it is Coke and it's champagne. So, it's obviously diet cocaine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I like it. I like it. I mean, I don't like the -- the sound of it. I like the name of it. I think it's funny.

BLACKWELL: Not a fan. But he likes it.

"THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.