Recent revelations about how artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are interacting with and affecting children are colliding with longstanding concerns about tech companies’ approach to safety and revitalizing efforts to pass kids’ online safety legislation.
Chatbots from both Meta and OpenAI have come under scrutiny in the past few weeks, raising questions about how to protect young users from potential harms caused by the rapid development of AI.
Several whistleblowers also came forward with new allegations about Meta’s handling of safety research, underscoring issues that have plagued tech companies with large platforms for years.
The latest developments have prompted senators from both sides of the aisle to renew calls to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), legislation aimed at strengthening online protections for children that has faced roadblocks in previous sessions.
“There is truly bipartisan anger, not only with Meta, but with these other social media platforms and virtual reality platforms and chatbots that are intentionally, knowingly harming our children, and this has got to stop,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said at a hearing Tuesday. “Enough is enough.”
KOSA came close to clearing Congress last year, after passing the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support in July 2024. However, it came up short in the House, where some Republican members voiced concerns about the potential for censorship of conversative views.
In an eleventh-hour effort to get the bill across the finish line in December, senators negotiated updated text with Elon Musk’s X seeking to address GOP concerns. Musk, who at the time was a key figure in then-President-elect Trump’s orbit, threw his weight behind the legislation following the changes.
However, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ultimately poured cold water on the push, saying he still had reservations about the KOSA’s free speech implications.
Blackburn and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) reintroduced the legislation in May, using the same language negotiated last December.
Notably, the bill had the support of leadership from the outset, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) both joining as co-sponsors.
Kids’ safety concerns have surged back to the forefront of policy discussions in recent weeks in the wake of reports about AI chatbots and their interactions with children.
Meta faced backlash from both sides of the aisle in mid-August after an internal policy document was made public, showing examples of permissible interactions between its AI chatbot and young users, which included “romantic or sensual” conversations.
This immediately provoked an uproar from lawmakers. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, which he chairs, was opening a probe into Meta’s generative AI products.
Meta quickly responded, saying this was an error and that it had removed the language. It also later announced it was updating its chatbot policy for teen users.
However, Hawley argued it was “unacceptable that these policies were advanced in the first place.”
OpenAI is also feeling the heat. The family of a 16-year-old boy sued the ChatGPT late last month, alleging that its chatbot encouraged him to take his own life. The company announced last week that it was making changes to how its chatbot handles people in crisis and strengthening teen protections.
The attorneys general of California and Delaware raised concerns to the company in a letter Friday about its safety practices in the wake of three deaths connected to ChatGPT, suggesting they “have rightly shaken the American public’s confidence in OpenAI and this industry.”
The FTC on Thursday announced it is launching an inquiry into AI chatbots, requesting information from several major tech firms, including Meta and OpenAI, about how they evaluate and limit potential harms to kids.
Meanwhile, six current and former Meta employees came forward this week with new allegations that the company doctored and restricted safety research in an effort to shield it from legal liability.
They described a “vast and negative change” in how the company approached safety research after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen alleged in 2021 that the tech giant was aware its platforms had negative impacts on young girls but had prioritized profits.
Meta has argued the claims are “nonsense,” suggesting they are based on selective documents to build a “false narrative.”
“The American public ought to be angry, ought to be furious at Meta, but also at the Congress, which has been complicit in failing to address this issue,” Blumenthal said at a press conference Tuesday.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who has co-sponsored KOSA, described a conversation with a parent who was struggling to keep her young children off of online platforms.
“She said it was like a sink overflowing with a faucet she couldn’t turn off, and she was just sitting out there with a mop,” Klobuchar said at Tuesday’s hearing. “These parents need more than mops. They need us to pass this bill.”
“The company can come before this subcommittee. They can provide us answers. But the best way to resolve this is to get this bill passed,” she later said, adding, “We’re ready to talk to them, but mostly we want to get something done. We’re tired of the talk.”
Despite recent calls to pass kids’ safety legislation, experts underscored that little has changed from December when the bill fell short in the House, casting doubt on its chances going forward.
The “significant differences” between the House and Senate that previously stymied movement on KOSA have yet to be resolved, noted Andrew Zack, policy manager for the Family Online Safety Institute,
“Kids’ online safety is a hot topic,” he told The Hill. “It is usually a bipartisan topic as KOSA is, but there’s some real questions to figure out.”
When asked Tuesday about reported efforts in the House to revise the legislation, Blumenthal said they had not yet seen the new text and underscored the “years of painstaking, time-consuming work” they have put into drafting and making changes to the bill.
“The latest news may lend KOSA some more momentum right now, but that won’t necessarily shift the fundamental political dynamics behind the bill,” said Andrew Lokay, a senior research analyst at Beacon Policy Advisors.
“Translating momentum into policy change on the federal level can be challenging,” he added. “Historically, Congress has been very slow to legislate on tech issues.”
