With kids and teens headed back to school, Rep. Joe Morelle is pushing legislation to protect children online.

Morelle joined educators on Wednesday at East Irondequoit Middle School to ramp up support for the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act.

If passed, those bills would hold large tech companies accountable for cyber-bullying, targeted ads and other harmful online issues.

They would be required to also shield minors from harmful content while preventing companies from collecting their personal information.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, children and adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media double their risk of experiencing mental health issues like depression.  

"That's heartbreaking for all of us in society to think that the children, students, one in four respond that they are so sad or have feelings of hopelessness that they stop doing their usual activities," Morelle said. "So it's impossible to see these statistics or hear these stories and think they're unrelated to the social media explosion that we've experienced."