Predatory AI, social media addiction targeted by new legislation from Michigan Senate Democrats

This story was originally published by Michigan Advance.

Safeguarding kids from social media overload and potentially harmful interactions with artificial intelligence are the focal points of a plan by Michigan Senate Democrats to regulate the technology industry.

The legislation includes Senate Bill 757, Senate Bill 758, Senate Bill 759 and Senate Bill 760, sponsored by Sens. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores), Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton), Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) and Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia).

At a press conference on Wednesday to unveil the package, the legislators said the bills create commonsense measures to ensure “big tech” is putting kids’ safety over clicks. That includes protections for data privacy, rampant online targeting and potential exploitation of minors.

“Big Tech has deliberately designed its digital platforms to keep our kids scrolling nonstop, profiting off minors’ social media addiction and private online data. This puts our youth in real danger, and as a new parent myself, I’m committed to holding Big Tech accountable and ensuring our kids are better protected from these online threats,” said Camilleri, who sponsored Senate Bill 757 along with McMorrow. 

Hertel said the bills will also aim to put parents more squarely in command of what their children are exposed to in a quickly advancing AI-heavy tech landscape.

“At the end of the day, every parent wants the same thing: to know their kids are safe, happy, and healthy. But in today’s increasing digital world, Big Tech’s exploitative practices are making that harder than ever,” said Hertel, who sponsored Senate Bill 758. “As both a parent and a legislator, I refuse to raise my children in a world where Big Tech profits at their expense and the expense of their classmates.”

Chang, who sponsored Senate Bill 759, said lawmakers have a duty to protect children from imminent danger in both physical and digital spaces.

“As social media and AI platforms continue to grow and advance, we must be proactive in regulating these exploitative and often dangerous online spaces that do not care about the well-being of its youngest users,” Chang said. 

Polehanki, a former high school teacher, sponsored Senate Bill 760, which focuses on AI chatbots.

“I know firsthand just how much our kids are online and how much unfettered digital activity inhibits their ability to learn, socialize with one another, and live a healthy, balanced lifestyle,” Polehanki said. “And as a legislator, I’ve also seen how unregulated AI companion chatbots have inflicted real-life harm to kids across the nation.”

The bills were referred to the Michigan Senate Finance, Insurance and Consumer Protection Committee.

Reporters asked the group if the onus was on big tech companies or parents, given that a large focus is on parental consent.

Polehanki said it was important for parents to step up their game, in terms of being aware of what their kids are consuming on social media and the internet.

“However, a Gen X parent, or even a millennial parent, has not been faced with anything like this before,” she said. “This is unprecedented, so I have a feeling a lot of parents just don’t know that. There are even AI chat bots out there that are seeking to have inappropriate relationships with their kids. … We don’t live in a world anymore where you can give a kid a phone and just let them go scroll for a couple of hours in a corner. It’s dangerous out there.”

Hertel said that he’s found, as a parent of a young child, that the few parental controls available haven’t kept up with the glut of data collected from kids’ devices.

“I think every parent, while we all have to have an active role in enforcing how our kids interact online, we can’t simply just take it away,” Hertel said. “We need the tools to be able to do that in a meaningful way.”

Even as more people become aware of the dangers of too much screen time and social media addiction, America’s health institutions have yet to classify it as a specific addiction disorder much like psychological dependencies on alcohol, drugs and nicotine. The senators were asked if it would be helpful to legislative causes, like the package introduced Wednesday, if social media addiction was classified as an official disorder.

Camilleri said the legislation doesn’t contemplate that move, but it was something both kids and adults are grappling with every day.

“We’ve added these new addictions across decades, things like gambling. They were never considered an addiction, but now it is, and perhaps this is something that is becoming one of those addictions that’s not just inflicting kids, it’s afflicting adults too,” Camilleri said. “So I think it’s worth looking at, but I don’t know that we’re at that point of calling it a legislative category that we should be addressing.”

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