- So first of all, what'shappening this week

with these social giants?

What's happening?

- Well, Facebook is such a dominant force.

You know, I'm an attorneyonce upon a time.

My son is an attorney with the US Attorney

in New Orleans saysthese are serious issues.

A lot of the artificial intelligence,

the AI as you can see inthe movie "Social Dilemma"

which was made by someof the people who started

and were partners in theorigination of these services

gets people hooked and it sort of plays

into their fears and frustrations.

And a lot of it plays intotheir fears and frustrations

which lead down the road,especially susceptible

to teen suicide.

I was head of a departmentat City University

of New York and we brought62 professors together

to determine the firstmedia literacy course

and now there're hundredsof thousands of studies.

And kids are extremelyvulnerable in the teenage years

because that's the self-esteem years.

And 66% of the young girlshave low self-esteem.

So what they do is they playon that and then they get them

to move in a direction wherethe wanna commit suicide.

It's just like theprogram "13 Reasons Why"

which was a disgrace becauseso many kids did end up.

In fact, my developmentalofficer, his son did that

five years ago and it's a horrible thing.

So curbing them in isgonna be very difficult.

So it's nice to see people coming together

and saying this is a gigantic issue

whether they're on the leftor the right or whatever,

and saying we've gotta protect our kids.

I've got 15 grandkids, soI'm very much interested

in this issue, besidethe millions of people

who come to MovieGuide.org every day.

- What kind of response is Facebook giving

to the criticism?

- Well, as I told you, I was an attorney

with the US Attorneys.

They're giving me theselukewarm sort of objectionary

just trying to pass itoff, we're doing our best.

Well they're not doingtheir best because they

could have dealt with it.

They're doing, well, we'retaking care of some of these.

They're not taking care of them.

They should prevent them.

They did do somethingspecial with Instagram.

They were gonna just starta new service to reach

more and more young people.

You know, I look atcognitive development theory

in the media literacy,the young one who are

in the concrete stageare even more vulnerable

than the ones that arein the self-esteem age.

So if they had gone in that direction.

The good news is they stoppedgoing in that direction.

And the better news wouldbe if they had decided

that they're not going to goin any of these directions

and they're not gonnaplay on people's fears.

You know, fear attractspeople to the news.

When I was head of the departmentat Berkeley, et cetera,

I'd teach people if it bleeds, it leads.

You wanna have something that captures,

you don't wanna have something that's just

a normal this is the biggest fire ever.

And people get afraid andthat gets them to watch more

and more of Facebook, thenews, or whatever else.

So you have to say we'regonna fight against this

even though it may meanwe're not gonna have

as many teenagers going to Facebook.

- What do you think isnext in all of this?

- I think sooner or later,if it goes down this road

and you're gonna get moreand more offensive material

and more and more designed by the AI,

and again, I refer to themovie "Social Dilemma"

which is excellent,you're gonna have to have

some government intervention.

I'm pretty much againstgovernment intervention

unless it's absolutely necessary.

I think the early Paramount Picture cases

actually hurt our country morethan they were before that

when the studios were incontrol, 'cause my father was

a star, so I think government intervention

is always a two-edged sword.

Some of it will be good,some of it could be

limiting our freedoms even more.

But it's a very problematicissue and if they

don't take their own self.

You know, it's like (mumbling).

We either have self disciplineor the whip of tyranny.

And we don't want tohave the whip of tyranny

so I hope that Facebookunderstands the word

self-discipline means youdon't just play on the fears

of our kids to get them down the path

where many of them areextremely vulnerable.

- While we wait for that,what would you suggest

to parents to do in termsof helping their kids

survive on social media?

- You know, that's thebest question I've heard

and I just did another show about this

and I didn't hear that question.

There's a lot of things you can do.

There're are great courses, great sites.

We have a course onthe "Media Wise Family"

and the "Culture Wise Family."

We know how to teach kids tobe media and culture wise.

In fact, one of my doctor advised people

who meets with me once a month.

I called and I said Ican't talk because my

teenage daughter is cutting.

So I sent them the"Media Wise Family" book

and they worked through allthe exercises with them.

You can teach children to be discerning

on their own and tomake the wise decisions.

That's the point of this.

And there are a lot of courses out there.

Ours is a little bitmore in-depth, academic,

and more dealing with thecognitive development theory

and media literacy with a biblical base.

So there are tools out thereto help you teach your children

not to go down that path andit's one of my sad points

that our development officer's son,

before we could reach him, didn't do that.

But this other person I talkto once a month got the book,

started working with her teenager.

She was at the top of her classbefore the COVID shutdown.

She was very pretty.

She went through allthe self-esteem issues.

She was cutting herself.

And she stopped.

And now she's got control of her life.

And that's what you want.

You want them to develop the plumb line

to be able to make thedifference and that involves

an educational process.

And education comes from the Latin word

educo de lead out of darkness.

You gotta lead your kids out of darkness

and you have to have the tools to