One bill would require social media sites to automatically set kids’ accounts at the highest privacy level
Social media feeds, children’s account privacy settings, and chatbots could see new regulations under recent Michigan Senate bills.
The package aims to keep kids safe online by limiting what online platforms can show them and restricting things like targeted advertising aimed at minors.
One bill would create a new Kids Code Act. It would require social media sites and other platforms to automatically set kids’ accounts at the highest privacy level, prevent sites from holding on to more data than necessary about children, and block adults from seeing children's content without permission.
Companies could pay up to $50,000 per violation. State Senator Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores), the bill’s sponsor, says he wanted the policies to be meaningful.
“I want to make sure that, for a company that is worth billions and billions of dollars, that they’re going to feel the pain when they don’t follow these rules. But also make it reasonable,” he said.
Penalties for breaking the new policies could range between $5,000 and $50,000 — depending on the offense.
Another part of the legislation would deal with access to addictive material. Online platforms would need parental consent before providing kids with personalized feeds, like those seen on “for you” pages.
There would also be quiet hours where children couldn’t receive notifications.
Hertel said children’s brains aren’t developed enough to handle everything available online.
“Technology has created more access to so much more material and some of that material is directly harmful, especially to our children. And so, we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep that out of their information space,” Hertel said.
Regarding chatbots, the bills would ban chatbots available to minors from being able to encourage self-harm, offer unsupervised mental health advice, engage in sexual behavior, and validate personal beliefs over facts and safety. In some cases, children have died after interacting with chatbots.
If passed, that part of the package could run afoul of an executive order from the Trump administration largely trying to stop states from regulating AI. The administration argued AI should be regulated at the federal level instead of state by state.
Hertel said the state needs to step in if the federal government won’t take a tougher stance on children’s protections when it comes to AI.
Michigan Senate leadership has named children’s online safety a priority for when lawmakers come back from winter break next year.
