It’s been an interesting week in Congress if you’re following proposals meant to make the internet safer. There’s a long road ahead, but lawmakers are progressing on measures to improve kids’ safety online and restrict so-called deepfake images generated by artificial intelligence.
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The action comes after months, even years, of complaints and lawsuits from parents and concerns from academics about the potential harmful effects of social media use and AI – notably the latter’s unnerving ability to generate remarkably convincing but counterfeit images of real people.
It has also been preceded by a debate of sorts about federalism, with the White House arguing in favor of federal action to preempt the emergence of a patchwork of state laws.
Whether the recent activity will actually generate legislation that lands on President Donald Trump’s desk is unclear. The congressional election-year calendar isn’t exactly packed with work days, and the House and Senate are far apart on at least a few of the proposals.
Come along, and enjoy the acronyms.
The KIDS Act
For frustrated parents, there were glimmers of hope.
On Monday, the Republican chairman and the top Democratic member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced a bipartisan agreement on legislation that includes pieces of 14 other bills meant to improve the digital environment for children.
“We worked across the aisle for many months and have now found common ground on policies to significantly improve the digital environment for kids,” Reps. Brett Guthrie, a Kentucky Republican, and Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, announced, promising “the 21st-century protections parents have demanded and our kids deserve.”
The legislation includes portions of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill which means to hold tech companies accountable for the alleged harms their social media platforms inflict on children. KOSA has run into opposition from civil liberties groups.
The newly announced package has already run into significant opposition. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called it “toothless and tepid capitulation” to Big Tech and said it was “dead” on arrival in the Senate.
Blumenthal said the House version omits a “duty of care” requirement obligating tech firms to mitigate foreseeable harm to minors rather than merely respond to complaints or lawsuits.
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Deep-Six Deepfakes?
While the House grapples with kids’ safety, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved bipartisan legislation last week to crack down on nonconsensual deepfakes.
The Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act aims to establish a clear federal right for individuals to control their visual likeness and their voice and punish individuals and companies that distribute deepfakes.
“Everyone deserves the right to own and protect their voice and likeness from AI deepfakes, no matter if you’re Taylor Swift or an 8th grader in Wilmington,” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, the bill’s principal Democratic author, said when it was unveiled.
NO FAKES would include exemptions for uses like parody, news and documentaries.
Chat Not With the Chatbot
The Senate could soon vote on another measure, written by Blumenthal and Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, that would ban AI chatbot “companions” for minors. A recent study found that 70% of teens have used a chatbot at least once.
The legislation would require tech companies to institute tough age-verification procedures to block the technology from kids under 18 and mandate that chatbots disclose their non-human status “clearly and conspicuously.”
The bill – Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue Act, aka GUARD – also makes it a crime for a chatbot to provide a minor with sexually explicit material, punishable by a fine of up to $250,000.
In a town regularly defined by its inability to agree, both parties appear to be on their way to grasping that when it comes to the intersection of kids and AI, the status quo is increasingly untenable.
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