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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) – South Carolina state lawmakers and advocates said Tuesday that they’re taking a stand against the “wild west” of artificial intelligence and social media to protect children.
Representatives on both sides of the aisle voiced the need for laws aimed at protecting South Carolina children at the State House.
South Carolina lawmakers are concerned that technology may be developing faster than laws can be created. At the State House, they discussed plans to ensure that new technology does not come at the price of a child’s mental health or safety.
“Artificial intelligence needs artificial integrity,” said Sen. Allen Blackmon, R-Lancaster.
State Rep. Brandon Guffey said it’s been too long since the State House has re-examined laws about online child safety.
“Whenever we start talking about artificial intelligence, my fear is that if we go back and we look at algorithms, you know, whenever we wrote the laws to protect children on a federal level, they were written in 1996, there’s not been much change since then,” he said.
Those like Kimberly Long, leader of the South Carolina chapter of Mothers Against Media Addiction, said they’re being proactive.
“Technology is changing so quickly that even the most dedicated, vigilant parent has a hard time keeping up with it,” she said. “I mean kids can find loopholes, so, what we’re trying to do is just put some safeguards in place to just help parents out, give us a little bit more choice in what our kids can access.“
Long added that she sees the impacts of social media on her own children.
“I’ve become concerned as I’ve learned about all of the dangers online and chatbots and people being able to, you know predators online that can reach these kids, and pretend to be youth contacting my son,” she said.
Long said the solution would be to put default settings on all social media apps where strangers can contact children.
“That way instead of parents having to stay savvy and up to date, we can actually opt in to anything we want our kids to have instead of having to be so proficient that we don’t know what we’re opting out on and what threats were made,” Long said.
Jerry Govan, SC State House District 93 representative, is pushing for new laws in a world of evolving technology and the rise of artificial intelligence.
“We must make it a priority to at least control or have some say in terms of how these technologies affect the most vulnerable of our population,” Govan said.
Pew Research finds almost 70 percent of teens use AI chatbots, and 12% turn to them for emotional support.
Several Senate bills would block bots from giving children emotional advice or holding long conversations. The bills would also limit what data AI platforms can collect and sell. Users would have to opt in before a platform could store their data or allow full bot access.
The House bill “Stop Harm from Addictive Social Media” Act was signed into law earlier this year. A Senate bill regarding AI chatbot regulations is still waiting to be passed.
With the session almost over, it is unlikely to happen this week.
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