WACO, Texas — TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube are all social media sites popular with teens and young adults but the safety of the platforms is up for questions with law makers.
Law makers on Capitol Hill questioned platform executives Tuesday about being transparent when it comes to kids online.
Senators are wanting these major social media platforms to amp up their protection for kids whether that's being more transparent or tightening their guidelines.
"Social media also evolved to feature an endless feed of unvetted content, exposing individuals to a flood of viral, misleading and harmful information," said Jennifer Stout with Snap, owner of Snapchat.
This year TikTok challenges have destroyed school property and promoted bullying.
"We do know trust must be earned and we're seeking to earn trust through a higher level of action, transparency and accountability," said Michael Beckerman with TikTok.
Executives with TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube were questioned about what they're doing to keep harmful content away from children, while also looking into how these apps could be misused to put kids in harms way.
The hearing comes after Facebook had several documents leaked by a whistleblower.
Executives from all three companies at the hearing committed to sharing internal research on how their products affect kids. It remains unclear what data the companies will disclose and if it will be new data.
In the meantime, some students and staff at G.W. Carver and Indian Springs Middle School are taking matters into their own hands. They're hoping to turn the negative connotation of social media around.
"Trying to help them see that we can use it for a positive way and not to fall into the negative way and we're just really talking about that," said Clair Chapman, a social worker with the school who is helping run the after school program's social media club.
Chapman and other staff members on campus started an incentive for students to participate in #TikTokTuesday. So many kids took interest and got involved that a club was formed.
Students are now learning about posting content to promote school events on campus and the value these platforms offer.
"Helping them understand what is social media, the realities of it and the hard things about it and also using it in the positive way for our campus," said Chapman.
Chapman hopes the students will learn and take their skills further to want to post for the school's social media platforms, with supervision of course.
As lawmakers work to learn and protect children online she is thankful and does want safety to be better, but also wants to use the tool to generate growth in the young population.
"Safety is important for our kids and also pushing that to another level of how can we start to introduce conflict resolution and things that they will be able to use for the rest of their lives within the school and learning how to do those things," Chapman added.