Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
To start with disclosure, I'm the mom of two teenage girls, so this very much hits home for me. Our teenage girls are overwhelmed. Parents are overwhelmed. There are teachers who are overwhelmed. There are a lot of people in a dark spot right now.
Raising teenagers in 2022 is an entirely different experience from the one my parents had raising me in the eighties and nineties. Social media didn't exist. Talking about mental illness didn't happen. COVID hadn't happened. Eating disorders weren't trending. Bullying has always happened, but it's been taken to a whole new level. It's out of control. In some cases, teenagers are now even contributing to families' finances, because the cost of everything is outrageous. The pressure is extremely real. It's almost like it's the perfect storm.
I would like to pose my first question to Dr. Elliott.
I'd like to dive into the punitive damages that our young girls and youth in general are experiencing as a result of COVID. They're missing out on graduations. They're missing out on sports. They're talking about isolation.
Where do you think we can find additional accountability? What can we do differently? What can the government do differently next time, if there's another pandemic?