NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Tennessee’s Attorney General is taking on big tech, calling for more transparency and accountability.

Through a series of town halls set to begin Thursday, Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is hoping to lead a conversation around social media calling the platforms addictive and harmful to children.

“We want to hear stories from people who have been affected,” Skrmetti said. “We want to be able to identify potentially people who can testify. We have medical experts, we have technology experts, we have education experts, we have an economist, but we need to put a human face on this if we’re going to take it to trial.”

The first of three meetings scheduled for March will take place Thursday, March 2 at Ross View Middle School in Clarksville.

As the investigation continues, Skrmetti hopes to learn more about the problems Tennesseans have faced when it comes to the harmful effects of social media, a direct impact from laws too broad and outdated.

“I used to teach Cyber Law at the University of Memphis, and we would always laugh about how outdated the laws were compared to the technology,” Skrmetti said. “And that was 10 years ago, and the laws haven’t changed. The biggest thing, the single biggest thing that needs to happen is Section 230 needs to be applied as written Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes, internet platforms from certain liability.”

With four kids himself, Skrmetti said the data he’s been accumulating over the years shows there’s a significant impact on children’s mental health coming from social media.

Skrmetti worries social media companies could be targeting the youngest groups of children, knowing there’s a clear violation in doing so.

“We know that they’ve designed their products to be as addictive as possible. We know that they’re not supposed to be marketing to kids under 13. But we know that kids under 13 are getting on there.”

Skrmetti said he’s been hearing horror stories from parents about what their children are experiencing online.

“Separate from the truly worst kinds of human trafficking stories, you hear these instances of kids just getting in cycles of depression, where the content that they’re being fed exacerbates it over and over until they’re committing self harm, or they’re dropping out of school, or they’re otherwise doing things that are going to have a permanent effect on their lives,” said Skrmetti.

Skrmetti added the algorithm driven cycle only adds to the problem. He said social media companies can be doing more to protect kids, which starts by fixing the algorithm and making the product less addictive.

The meetings will continue through March.

The next meeting will take place Thursday, March 9 in Jackson at Southwest Tennessee Development District. The final March meeting will take place in Chattanooga on Monday, March 27 at the School for the Liberal Arts.

All meetings are open to the public.