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House Homeland Security & Public Safety and House Youth Health & Safety met jointly on August 8 to hear invited testimony only on the following charges:

  • Charge #4: Examine the role of online communications in mass violence scenarios and identify technological resources and solutions for detecting, mitigating, and reporting threats; and
  • Charge #5: Study the needs of the state related to mental health professionals, educators, school administrators, and related professionals overseeing youth mental health programs and the delivery of those mental health services.

This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.

Opening Comments

  • Chair Lozano – Today is the 6th hearing held to discuss mental health by Youth Health & Safety; are in the midst of a youth mental health crisis
  • Chair Lozano – Have 6 panels as of right now

Charge #5: Study the needs of the state related to mental health professionals, educators, school administrators, and related professionals overseeing youth mental health programs and the delivery of those mental health services

Panel 1

Mary Libby, Texas School Counseling Association

  • Also the director of counseling for Northside ISD in San Antonio; have a CIS partner model and have a social development LMSW model
  • Ask the legislature prioritizes increased access to school counselor support
  • Those who implement a MTSS counseling program: campus violence is reduced, academic performance goes up, and those on campus feel safer
  • Recommend the legislature:
  • Directs TEA to adopt rules and create a tracking system to determine who is adhering to SB 179
  • Remove testing responsibilities from counselors
  • Appropriate funds tied to lowering counselor-to-student ratio especially in rural or low-income areas
  • Codify crisis response system; amend Crime Victim Compensation Program to fund this
  • Increase Medicaid reimbursement rate to 100% for LPCs, LMFTs, and MSWs

Lisa Descant, CEO for Community in Schools

  • CIS provides cases management services for over 120,000 students in 200 school districts in Texas; overseen by TEA with funding by the legislature
    • Every $1 invested, provide $3 in services
  • After Uvalde CIS deployed clinicians to Uvalde to respond to the event
    • Worked to establish a plan to support throughout summer school
    • Provided an overview of supports provided
  • Uvalde School Board formalized an agreement that 6 CIS site-based professionals for Uvalde
  • State funding is important for CIS; with increased funding can expand framework

Becca Harkleroad, Texas School Nurses Association

  • Need to address mental and social needs of student before we can focus on academic performance
  • School nurses are typically the firsts point of access for student mental health concerns
  • Due to shortages, some students are waiting months to receive appropriate care
  • Telemedicine is bridging some of those gaps, but not all schools have that access
  • ESSER grant funds have been helpful for mental health services, but are finite
    • Need to find a sustainable funding source
  • Need to expand CMS federal Medicaid reimbursement related to mental health services in schools
  • Medicaid plan amendment to CMS; 17 other states have already done so
    • Florida’s 2020 bill projected to bring in an additional $51m for mental health services
  • Not attempting to expand Medicaid or to increase pool of those who are eligible
  • Would allow schools to access and match services they already provide/could provide
    • Would not require a state expenditure

Dr. Alvia Baldwin, Self

  • Director of guidance and counseling at Alief ISD
  • Echo previous recommendations to expand CMS funding for mental health
  • Overviews supports and investments Alief ISD has made in the past couple years
  • Highlights the need to train teachers to be able to respond and refer
  • Utilized ESSER funds social emotional development efforts; including hiring additional mental health professionals

Q&A Panel 1

  • Chair White – Over 98% school shooters are males; should we have targeted counseling for males in these settings?
    • Libby – Need to start early and give students a voice to express feelings to adults; issue is also societal in terms of gender
  • Kuempel – How quickly are children in crisis reported to nurses/counselors?
    • Libby – Best care scenario, they are referred immediately; need to have a program in place
    • Baldwin – Making a move to “what is wrong with you” to “what happened to you”
    • Harkleroad and Descant – Discuss training given to administrators; need to have a good support system on campus
  • M. González – Three buckets are increased awareness, resources, institutional public policy changes; what should this committee not leave behind?
    • Descant – Need increased infrastructure in schools
    • Panelists discuss the use of TCHATT
  • M. González – Ways to enhance school finance formula?
    • Libby – Starting at Tier 2 without Tier 1 is an issue; 80% is a great start, but need to get to 100%
    • Descant – Mental health funding discussions seem to be outside of TEA; need to direct more dollars into TEA
    • Baldwin – Districts need sustainable funds for districts to support programs and to build them up
  • A. Johnson – How long will you need to stay in Uvalde?
    • Libby and Descant – Will stay as long as the community will have us; it will effect the community for generations
  • A. Johnson and the panelists discuss generational trauma related to the Uvalde shooting; panelists note that stigma around getting mental health is lessening
  • Lozano – Notes professionals may not want to move to small towns and school districts; would CIS get us a figure to help fill gaps; how much does the school pay for your services?
    • Descant – Generally go in with a cost share and varies depending on budget capacity of affiliates
  • Patterson – Mental health hospitalizations have doubled within the last year; what is happening? Think fatherlessness in the home is a big reason
    • Libby – Often do not have up-stream resources; need communications between hospitals and schools if a student is hospitalized
    • Patterson and panelists discuss the role of social media in negative mental health outcomes for parents and children
  • Patterson – Partner with faith leaders to help solve this problem?
    • Descant – Partner with Loving Houston to provide tutoring of mental health support
    • Baldwin – Alief ISD has Superintendent Pastoral Advisory Committee; looking to transition into student support
    • Libby – Discusses the multiple faith organizations’ involvement
  • Rose and panelists discuss workforce shortages in the mental health counselors
  • Goodwin – Does Texas have a self-reporting app? Utah has one that goes to a licensed counselor
    • Libby – District adopted Bark which monitors what is going on in; have a district app where students can report
    • Baldwin – Looking at using ESSER funds for Cognito which is educational models for parents and students on how to report
  • Allison and panelists discuss training provided on appropriate referrals in terms of TCHATT
    • Descant – Federally funded positions created by ESSER funding are often more attractive than local salaries
  • Morales – Projected 26% increase in jobs for these types of mental health professionals; could draft legislation for LMFTs and LPCs to provide help?
    • Descant – Are unique and necessary aspects of each credential and would need oversight to ensure those are kept distinct

Panel 2

Andy Keller, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute

  • Important to ensure we are not conflating mental health issues with mass violence
  • Is a small link to certain severe mental health conditions with propensity to violence
  • Need to look at treating everyone with mental health to get that small percentage of people
    • Key is treatment in primary pediatric care
  • Common characteristics of mass violence perpetrators are not themselves predictive of mass violence
  • TCHATT expansion was very important and will answer questions about that if there are any
  • Schools need a diverse pool of supports; have to partners with health providers
  • Asks the legislature to expand CMS federal Medicaid reimbursement related to mental health services in schools
  • Important programs we need to focus on Multi-Systemic Therapy; need 140 teams
  • Need about 40 Pediatric Crisis Stabilization Response Teams since we do not have enough hospitals/professionals
  • Need TEA to have funds such the last panel discussed and workforce promotion such as having students training for one degree to supervise another and larger salaries

Dr. Steve Bain, TAMUK Rural Mental Health Institute

  • Overviews the mental health crisis especially in school-age children and TAMU’s contribution to mental health professional education
  • Must expand rural mental health programs
  • With legislature’s funding, universities can continue to increase professionals in the workplace and those who are receiving those services

Mandy Westerman, Universal Health Services and Texas Hospital Association

  • UHS is one of the largest behavioral health providers in the country
  • Has been increasingly difficult to have adequate staff; vacancy rates average 20%
  • Increased competition for direct care nurses due to those dropping out of profession altogether
  • Due to COVID-19 needs more local travel jobs have opened up and have paid more
  • Ask the legislature consider more funds for adult contract beds
  • Are 424 health professional shortage areas which covers 15 million Texans

Lee Johnson, Texas Council of Community Centers

  • Provides an overview of the historical state reforms in mental health
  • In 2021 population 29m and 2.2k state hospital beds available; capacity is realistically less
  • Coordinated Specialty Care and MST are not available statewide
  • 988 federal initiative was rolled out recently; would hopefully be a helpful resource moving forward
  • Are heavily involved in the Texas Child Mental Health Consortium
  • Overviews success of current programs including those created due to HB 19 (Price)
  • Members report unusually high turnover-rates and workforce shortages; some specific positions have up to 50% openings
  • 2009 legislature provided a Maintenance of Critical Services to members; allowed for flexibility at local level for increased personnel costs and workforce shortages

David Godinez, Project Vida Health Center and Texas Association for Community Health Centers

  • Health centers are safety net providers for underserved areas, particularly rural
  • Facing retention and recruitment due to rising cost of higher education and FQHCs’ limited budget
  • Are using telehealth to help bridge the gap and members have partnered with 95 school based health centers

Q&A Panel 2

  • Chair White – If you are provided these resources, what are the deliverables?
    • Keller – Mental health issues show up differently between males and females; if make these investments will see specialized programs to cover those who need intensive services
    • Johnson – Pediatric Response Teams would create capacity
    • Bain – Need to focus on professional development on all levels; particularly in rural areas
  • M. González – What would be the price tag on this?
    • Keller – Specialty programs cost between $80-90m per year; most can be offset by changes to our Medicaid reimbursement plan
    • Keller – Addressing staffing shortages would be in the “$100s of millions”
    • M. González – Would like to talk to you about those changes to Medicaid
    • Johnson – Will commit to work with you during session to get you those numbers
  • M. González – Have an additional $27b we could use to make strategic investments, need to look at the cost of having/not having a retention plan
  • M. González and Keller discuss the struggle finding balance between equity and access
    • Keller – game changer is tele-health, bring in boards and have them say how we can liberalize access, what needs to be done short-term vs long term also needs to be reviewed
    • Bain – How much would it take to put a licensed professional counselor/social worker in every school district (how much to put mental health professionals on campuses), need to look at if we are making salaries competitive
    • Godinez – FQHC status gets them a higher reimbursement rate which allows them to extend services to students
  • M. González – one of the barriers is understanding how much everything costs
    • Godinez – 21 school based health centers on campuses in El Paso for $1.6 million per year
    • Keller – will provide specific estimates to her office
  • Goodwin – asked about bullying/being picked on, is there help somehow in the system?
    • Keller – Perinatal support are critical to help moms and supports for the family
    • Keller – Universal screening for mental health is in primary care
    • Keller – There have been good reforms to not criminalize truancy
    • Keller and Goodwin talk about screenings, who has expertise vs time to conduct
  • Rose – asked witness to elaborate on media reference to mental illness
    • Keller – violence is something humans do and mental illness has no correlation with increased violence
    • Keller – need to begin early asking children what they need to be successful, not wait until the crisis
  • A. Johnson – asked about screenings, could you identify kids before they drop out of school
    • Keller – there is a process in place by funding collaborative care which went into effect this summer, they only thing they lack is funding to get started
    • Keller – Child Psychiatry outreach network, just got a grant funded for Think Kids program to help parents work on difficult child management skills and evidence shows fewer prescriptions with these types of interventions
  • A. Johnson – what are some of the other things that we could identify the population most at risk
    • Keller – Refers to slide 7, preventive school shootings
  • A. Johnson – Asks about current laws blocking certain individuals from holding firearms
    • Keller – Current law is clearly not enough; why we emphasize the iWatch program
  • A. Johnson – asked about detaining a person with mental health concerns
    • Westerman- code does not allow certain ages to be on OPC, in child protective custody the parent has to agree
    • Godinez – would be glad to connect her office to resources
    • Keller – careful not to attach more stigma to mental health, just because they have a mental health issue does not mean they would kill someone
    • Keller – this is a system problem, working together we can help address
    • Keller – hopelessness is a disconnect from reality and there are people who care
    • A. Johnson – wants to know if the panel could make a reasonable determination so the person could not go and get a weapon
    • Keller – emphasize iWatch, made more robust and students needs to use it and alert of issues, notes states like Florida have implemented something like Johnson refers to

Panel 3

Julie Wayman, Texas Education Agency

  • Mental health work began in 2015 Behavioral Health Coordinating Council was formed
  • Were granted $10m from a federal Grant from Project AWARE from SAMSA
  • Received a second grant after SB 11, HB 18, HB 19, and HB 906 were passed building up mental health resources 86(R)
    • Working on a third grant with SAMSA
  • Working on strong training and connections to intervene on students with suicidal ideations
  • Provides the strain COVID-19 and social media has had on student mental health
  • Need multi-disciplinary teams in order to support students and families once threats/risks have been identified; SB 11 has been “profound”, but pipeline is low
    • What CIS does on the prevention-side is important
  • Over summer TCHATT has added approximately 30 systems and over 100 schools
    • School needs a counselor or social worker who can help students face-to-face as well
  • Partnership with LMHAs and education service centers; overviewed other mental health initiatives
  • Provided the committee with slides concerning disciplinary action data
  • Over the past five years students have made 2k terroristic threats from students and are 700 reports of weapons

Sonja Gaines, Intellectual and Developmental Disability and Behavioral Health Services

  • Behavioral Health Coordinating Council now contains 25 state agencies including Juvenile Justice, Veterans Commission, and TEA
  • Have developed a behavioral health strategic plan; are the only state who has done so
    • Recently published an update which includes forensic and substance use plans
  • Are working on analyzing outcomes produced over time
  • All LMHAs in the state are now certified as community mental health centers
  • Provide services to children including counseling, medication management, YES waiver program (has served over 3k children), intensive case management (over 1k have been served)
  • Programs allows for the prevention of mental hospital stays or crisis for children
    • Aim to expand one of these programs to three more rural locations
  • System of care program, several grants funded federally, CCRGs initiative (looks at state and community resources), mental health first aid – all resources provided
  • Mentalhealthtex.org has been revamped
  • Another resource would be the mental health grant programs which includes serving the homeless
  • Hospital inpatient beds (2k for adults and 100+for children) and 560 community based inpatient beds (using at 150%)
  • Needs: Workforce needs and awareness campaigns

Q&A

  • Hull asks about parental notification before threat assessment; asks about superintendent related involvement
    • Wayman – School safety center conducts holds threat assessment training, but they collaborate with them on that and it is an iterative process
    • Wayman – Commissioner wants to step back and reflect on guidance and see if there are recommendations for the legislature
    • Hull and Wayman discuss more about calling the parent, calling parent is what Wayman said would happen routinely in many cases but will go back and look at specifics and get back to Hull
  • Lozano – 1 in 5 kids have shown the characteristic of a mental illness?
    • Wayman – Not necessarily a mental illness, but a mental health challenge; is about giving children health communication skills
  • Lozano – TEA has the ability to get more precise data like how many suicidal ideations or crisis that students have
    • Wayman – May see an agency recommendation concerning that; might include how to manage students in ISS or DAEP

Panel 4
Dr. Karin Price, Texas Children’s Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital Association of Texas

  • Solutions in place to respond to children’s mental health crisis are inadequate
  • See youth mental health crisis in every mental health entry
  • Number of children showing up in behavioral health crisis between about 50-100 pre-pandemic
    • Now are seeing between 400-450
  • Not seeing crisis receding; February saw the highest number ever
  • Outpatient mental health care referrals outnumber the referrals for any other specialist
  • 60% older children in adolescence present with mental health concerns and many children have to wait for service and care
  • Need a variety of solutions for a variety of needs:
  • Caring for youth in crisis and those in need of acute care starts with recognizing signs and symptoms
    • Teachers need to know what they can do; tailored education to teachers, administrations, community leaders, spiritual leaders, etc.
  • Need broad investment in research, technology, and infrastructure
  • Need access to services in the least restrictive environment in line with the care they need
  • Need to consider parents, is “terrifying” to send a child to a in-patient psychiatric hospital
  • Proactive approaches to educating families about their options and offering ongoing support after a child is discharged is key
  • Reconnecting youth back to their community after a crisis; need to contact their primary care physician and school counselors with parents’ permission
  • Have worked to integrate mental health care with primary care pediatricians; need to collocate these professionals to allow for upstream care
    • Facilitates coordinated care
  • Study found a majority of those who die by suicide had visited a health care setting months/weeks before their death
  • Some children require highly specialized care which is currently not accessible to all members of the community
  • Have deployed a mobile behavioral health unit with three HISD schools
    • Team has made a commitment to the community of Uvalde to continue support throughout the school year through their FQHC

Madhukar Trivedi M.D, UT Southwestern Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care

  • Are telltale signs that precede long before a crisis
  • Have shifted focus to prevention in family and pediatric practice
  • Need to think about addressing needs earlier and benefit from the resilience that children have
  • Have to get peers engaged and college will discuss the prevention program YAM
  • Program received funds through ARPA and through the TCHATT program; embarking on moving it across the state and is entirely voluntarily
  • Need to figure out low-intensity care that does not require hospitalizations or medication

Dr. Tobi Fuller, UT Southwestern Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care

  • The Youth Aware of Mental Health program has been voluntarily launched in multiple schools in North Texas area facilitated by UT Southwestern
  • Serve middle school and high schoolers; includes 5 sessions which total 5 hours

Q&A Panel 4

  • Lozano and Fuller discuss the 5 sessions in the YAM program
  • Lozano – Provides a personal anecdote of the
    • Trivedi – Circumstances vary based on family structure and support
  • A. Johnson – What are Uvalde’s long-term needs?
    • Price – If we can build coping skills for kids early and into the community; goal is to help Uvalde set up something sustainable
  • A. Johnson – Is the healthcare community able to debate manners and means that would limit
    • Price – Feel comfortable when; would like to use the same
    • Trivedi – Focus is typically best on how to create structure and support so they do not use any tool to harm themselves
    • Trivedi – Resilience can be built into communities; need to consider how to sustainably add

Charge #4 Examine the role of online communications in mass violence scenarios and identify technological resources and solutions for detecting, mitigating, and reporting threats

Panel 1

Dale Avant, Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division Texas Department of Public Safety

  • 8 fusion centers in Texas
  • Described the fusion center
  • Fusion center analysts collaborated with multiple agencies to locate and positively identify a suspect in Ingleside (private chat discussions help identify this individual)

Kimberly Jones, Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division Texas Department of Public Safety

  • iWatch Texas
  • Role of SAR (suspicious activity reporting); explained how the system works and creates a threat pattern
  • Since 2018 there have been an increase (with exception of COVID) but the system continues to be underutilized
  • Avant answered a question from Rep. White, the Fusion center covers all of Texas including rural Texas and urban areas
  • Patterson and Avant discussed when the Center receives reports, when there is an immediate threat or certain threat to life reports
  • Patterson – Uvalde shooting online behavior not reported, no proof social media did anything to restrict activities or provided it to law enforcement according to his review of the information
  • Patterson – do you submit details to social media
    • Avant – yes, if they became of immediate need; would send a request to the provider for certain types of locating information
  • Patterson – how does this work physically?
    • Avant – it varies, Jones can speak to it since she managed this
    • Jones – company and platform specific
    • Jones – time frame also varies from platform to platform, typically in hours not days
    • Jones – may need to submit an emergency disclosure threat
  • Patterson – have you all even been denied by a social media platform when you had probable cause? Do you believe social media could do a better job?
    • Jones – have received denials on emergency disclosure threat
    • Avant – some companies take civil rights to a different level, protecting identity of consumer but in cases of exigent threat they will responds in those limited cases
    • Jones – Subpoena takes much longer to fulfill
    • Avant – there is always room for improvement
  • Tinderholt – do you feel that legislation forcing companies to provide that data (because they provide it for marketing) would help stop some of these things?
    • Avant – clearly that is a public policy question, believes this is largely an industry decision regarding providing data
  • Tinderholt – has concerns there is data out there and they are not reporting it
    • Avant – clearly they have access to the data
    • Avant – there are public things and more things in the private chat, scope and scale problem to monitor all the chatter
    • Avant – school safety of iWatch could help inform when someone is going down a path they shouldn’t
  • Tinderholt – thinks there is a balance, not sure where middle is but something we need to talk about
  • Goodwin – how do you advertise iWatch?
    • Avant – agencies received letter from Governor to request coordination on how to get the details/market to the schools
    • Avant – trying to aggressively market to the schools
    • Jones – trying to encourage more information being reported, there must be a criminal element for them to keep the report
    • Goodwin – asked about quantity amount triggering report to ATF?
      • Avant – not to his knowledge, must be criminal
  • Rose – asked about threat to life reports, only 13 direct reports?
    • Avant – doesn’t mean they didn’t take due action
  • Cole – asked about probably cause
    • Jones – suspicious activity has different weight than probable cause
  • Cole – do Fusion centers notify parents if there is something being investigated on their child?
    • Jones – ones threshold reach, not aware of Fusion center analysts doing this
  • White – asked about point of getting camera footage from a privately owned building?
    • Avant – Not a new issue, access is largely dependent on the owner
    • Avant – can always ask
  • Tinderholt – is there a tool or resource for schools to know if something is happening in immediate area?
    • Avant – active shooter situation passed in Landgraf bill, there are things that can help provide situational awareness
    • Jones – there are tools that can provide alerts to cell phones, but it depends on who is on that network (iWatch is not a reporting network)
    • Tinderholt- his kids go to a private school and they had no idea of an active shooter situation a few miles away
    • Avant – there is a certain service that will not market with law enforcement
  • Cole – do you oppose giving geolocations of threatening postings?
    • Avant – we do not, if its threatening then its things they would need
  • Goodwin – asked for difference between text and billboard?
    • Avant – similar notification of other alerts like FEMA and TxDOT, uses same tools for Amber alert
    • Goodwin – it didn’t get used in Uvalde because there was not a request
    • Avant- correct, there was not a request so they did not send one out
    • Landgraf – TxDOT can utilize some signs but the bigger notification is the SMS messages
  • Lozano – asked about school Raptor alert system, noting that so many updates went out and became less alert because of it
    • Avant – schools have been marketed to and acquired
  • Hull – does the Fusion center monitor without parents knowing or knowing if their child is being investigated or other children at the school
    • Avant – don’t know how local department would interact, there are requirements, but it depends on the situation
    • Avant – at Fusion center they don’t open investigations

Panel 2

Servando Esparza, TechNet (members include Meta, Snap, Pinterest, Amazon, Nextdoor, Slack, Google)

  • Remarks focuses broadly on commitment to identifying and working with law enforcement
  • When content is found that violates policies, it is addressed
  • Has statistics in his written testimony
  • Platforms have human reviewers
  • Discusses teams that have a sole focus of safety and security and platforms will reach out proactively or at times law enforcement will reach out
  • Highlights their process in these areas

Carl Szabo, NetChoice

  • Intersection between tech and law enforcement is challenging
  • Electronic Communication Privacy Act, Video Privacy Protection Act, etc just can’t hand information over
  • Argues every generation has its own technological challenges such as TV, Radio, etc
  • Points out VChip example of government trying to create solution on people, pandemic makes it harder for parents

Tara Ryan, Entertainment Software Association

  • Represent Xbox, Switch, Nintendo, publishers, 30 members
  • Texas has 20 varsity esports teams
  • Take steps to guard against bad actors
  • Discusses tools in place since 1990s including parent controls available
  • Members create and establish code of conduct to set up clear expectations
  • Have enhanced escalation policies in place

Q&A Panel 2

  • Gonzalez – what public
    • Request from law enforcement, can do training so they can see what happens on the other side as these request come in
  • Gonzalez – do you think young people need training?
    • Yes, educational campaigns but not saying there is only thing to address
  • Darby – Esparza comments not directed at you but the community, talked about proactive actions of member companies and shared # database that allows identification or block of terrorist activities but Darby says he has heard this many years before
  • Darby – thinks in the last three years the companies should have come up with more strategies, at best its “listless” and at worst its emblematic of the issue not being taken seriously
  • Darby – the committee requested a number of social media platforms to attend today and none came, request them to cooperate fully and openly, ensure safety, and not use same vague and verbatim testimony from 3 years ago
  • Darby – what transformative public policy initiatives should they consider (not fluff, tips and tools like timers on a screen)? Shocked only 13 cases turned over out of the thousands/millions
  • Darby – disappointed in testimony
    • Esparza – apologies, provided testimony he could get approval for
    • Esparza – digital curriculum, how to use the internet could help
    • Esparza – collaboration with law enforcement could be helped if there was training in how to submit request to platforms. Some cases take 30 mins – 2hrs but there are other cases with no response because details missing or submissions to the wrong platform
    • Esparza – members are listening
  • Szabo – don’t want that stuff on their systems either, there are false flags that occur, thinks there are opportunities for better work, exceptionally frustrated with what is going on
  • Darby – why are member companies not here? There needs to be better coordination between these companies and law enforcement. Companies need to address how to make it easier for them to access the platforms for information?
  • Patterson – asked Szabo about online education
    • Szabo – actively involved in content law with State of Texas, one small example of the squeeze they are in
    • Patterson – appreciates DARE example, thinks online is like a drug
    • Patterson – it’s a slap in the face of Texans for the social media companies to not be present and not show up
  • Patterson – what is business model of Social Media, how many use algorithm to keep end users to stay plug in longer like does Fox news use it?
    • Szabo – Advertising, they use data to keep people linked in using an algorithm feed
  • Patterson – every increase of an hour of social media is contributing to a percent increase in depression, FB depression if you stay on longer than 3 hours will have depression
    • Szabo – not sure of Patterson’s studies but points out a study he knows of where you need to look at underlying cross tabs
    • Szabo – concerned data Patterson using information that may need more clarification between correlation and causation
  • Patterson – asked Esparza about several studies including youth committing self-harm noting TechNet does not highlight mental health safety on their site, 1 out of every 5 younger 9-12 yr old saying they have had a sexual interaction with an adult?
    • Esparza – have not engaged in those studies before, companies do publish transparency reports
    • Szabo – if they identify end user underage of 13, the account is terminated
    • Patterson – wants to know how they know when person is under 13
    • Szabo – they need to be self -identified; if the law is being broken then …
  • Patterson and Szabo have contract discussions on underage usage of social media
  • Patterson – similar to a conversation about a book publisher selling obscene material for kids to see so what is level of responsibility you all have?
    • Szabo – It is a scale problem
    • Szabo – we are constantly removing content, 99% of horrific content is removed and they need to get better and they are getting better
  • Patterson – asking not to lead kids to anorexia, do you believe sexual material is objectionable?
    • Szabo – Community standards may vary upon community, the question is what can we do better so working with law enforcement and schools
  • Patterson – represent Frisco ISD; how do the companies you represent work with law enforcement?
    • Esparza and Szabo overview the different methods a platform would use to report emergency situations vs non-emergency situations
    • Esparza
  • Patterson – is a correlation with increased use of social media in children and mental health problems
  • Lozano – notes there is an “epidemic” with mental health issues; ask your members come to the capitol to talk to us; their continued disregard for the state will not go unanswered this session
  • Landgraf – lay out efforts to review reported content; think those efforts are enough?
    • Ryan – number one reports are user-reported, is a whole process to review and escalate; companies are constantly working to be as vigilant as possible
  • Geren – Make it known to players they can report?
    • Ryan – Yes
  • Lozano and the panelists discuss appropriateness of advertising paired with certain news stories
  • White – Are we confident all Texas law enforcement agencies know how to contact you?
    • Esparza – That area needs improvement
  • Bonnen – Is frustrating are not having meaningful discussions with industry itself, just their government relations team
  • Harless – what was Facebook’s opposition to HB 3363 relating to the issuance and execution of certain search warrants in a criminal investigation and the admissibility of evidence obtained through certain searches
    • Esparza and Harless discuss whether the bill focused on an IP address or included other data