Instagram's dangers to children unite liberal and conservative lawmakers who agree on little else

WASHINGTON – Near the end of a dramatic hearing this month on the harm Instagram poses to teenagers, Sen. Richard Blumenthal picked up his phone and read a text from a distraught parent who was watching the proceedings live.

“I am in tears right now," the father wrote, describing how his 15-year-old daughter – who once loved her body – had developed an eating disorder after posting images constantly on Instagram.

"Suddenly she started hating her body, her body dysmorphia, now in anorexia and was in deep, deep trouble before we found treatment," said the dad, a constituent from Blumenthal's home state of Connecticut. "I fear she’ll never be the same. I am brokenhearted.”