SACRAMENTO — Julianna Arnold wasn’t alarmed when her teen daughter first joined Instagram.
Many individuals her age have been utilizing it. And her daughter Coco had a social life and different hobbies, like observe and gymnastics, to stability out her time on-line.
“It was music and dancing movies and it appeared harmless,” mentioned Arnold, who resides in Los Angeles, explaining that she would look over the content material Coco watched.
However Arnold mentioned a person used Instagram to focus on her daughter whereas they have been dwelling in New York in 2022, sending non-public messages and appearing like a “large brother” to earn her belief. Two weeks after her seventeenth birthday, Coco met him close to her residence — and died after taking a fentanyl-laced faux Percocet that he offered.
Related tales are taking part in out nationwide as dad and mom grapple with the right way to defend their kids from a myriad of threats on-line.
Because the state is residence to many tech giants, Gov. Gavin Newsom has mentioned California is paving the way in which for legislative restrictions on social media and synthetic intelligence. However whereas baby security advocates agree progress was made on the state capital this yr, they argue there’s nonetheless an extended solution to go and plan to battle for extra protections when legislators reconvene in January.
“I might say California is certainly main on this,” mentioned Jai Jaisimha, co-founder of the Transparency Coalition, a nonprofit researching the dangers and alternatives related to AI. “[But] I might like to see a willingness to be a bit stronger by way of understanding the impacts and taking motion quicker. We are able to’t afford to attend three or 4 years — hurt is occurring now.”
A survey final yr from the Pew Analysis Middle discovered almost half of U.S. teenagers ages 13 to 17 say they’re on-line “nearly always.” 9 in 10 teenagers mentioned they use YouTube, and roughly 6 in 10 mentioned they use TikTok and Instagram. Fifty-five % reported utilizing Snapchat.
In the course of the current legislative session, Newsom signed a slate of laws supposed to make the web safer, notably for minors.
One new legislation requires working system suppliers to ask account holders for the person’s age when organising tools equivalent to laptops or smartphones. The system suppliers then ship a sign to apps concerning the person’s age vary so content material might be adjusted for age-appropriateness. One other measure requires sure platforms to show warning labels concerning the antagonistic psychological well being results social media can have on kids.
A 3rd new legislation requires companion chatbots to periodically remind customers they don’t seem to be interacting with a human and to place suicide prevention processes in place to assist those that present indicators of misery. A companion chatbot is a pc program that simulates humanlike conversations to supply customers with leisure or emotional assist.
Newsom, nevertheless, vetoed what was arguably essentially the most aggressive invoice, saying it was too broad and will stop kids from accessing AI altogether.
Meeting Invoice 1064 would have prohibited making companion chatbots accessible to minors if the chatbots have been “foreseeably” able to selling sure behaviors, like self-harm, disordered consuming or violent acts. It will even have required impartial security audits on AI packages for youngsters.
“That’s one piece that we’re going to revisit subsequent yr,” mentioned Sacha Haworth, government director of the Tech Oversight Venture. “We’re in conversations with members’ places of work and the governor’s workplace about getting that laws to a spot the place he can signal it.”
One other group is taking a distinct method.
Widespread Sense Media Chief Government Jim Steyer has launched a marketing campaign for a state poll initiative, dubbed the California Children AI Security Act, to take the problem on to voters. Amongst different provisions, it could strictly restrict youth entry to companion chatbots and require security audits for any Al product geared toward kids or teenagers. It will additionally ban firms from promoting the private knowledge of customers underneath 18 with out consent.
Steyer added that AB 1064 had widespread assist and certain would have been signed have been it not for the tech trade’s aggressive lobbying and threats to go away the state.
“On this planet of politics, generally it’s important to try to strive once more,” Steyer mentioned. “[But] we have now the momentum, we have now the info, we have now the general public and, most of all, we have now the ethical excessive floor, so we’re going to win.”
Ed Howard, senior counsel and coverage advocate for the Kids’s Advocacy Institute on the College of San Diego, mentioned considered one of its targets for subsequent yr is to provide extra enamel to 2 present legal guidelines.
The primary requires social media platforms to supply a mechanism for minors to report and take away pictures of themselves being sexually abused. The second requires platforms to create an identical reporting mechanism for victims of cyberbullying.
Howard mentioned the most important platforms, like TikTok, Fb and Instagram, have both not complied or made the reporting course of “extremely tough.”
“The existence of such imagery haunts the survivors of those crimes,” he mentioned. “There can be a invoice this yr to wash up the language in [those laws] to ensure they’ll’t get away with it.”
Howard believes legislators from each side of the aisle are dedicated to discovering options.
“I’ve by no means earlier than seen the sort of bipartisan fury that I’ve seen directed at these [tech] firms,” he mentioned.
Lishaun Francis, senior director of behavioral well being for Kids Now, mentioned the group continues to be exploring potential legislative priorities for 2026.
She defined they usually take a measured method as a result of stronger laws tends to get tied up in lawsuits from the tech trade. Meta, Google and TikTok, for instance, are difficult a California legislation enacted final yr that restricts youngsters’ entry to customized social media feeds.
“We’re nonetheless attempting to do some bit extra analysis with our younger individuals about how they wish to work together with AI and what they assume this could appear like,” Francis mentioned. “We expect that is a crucial lacking piece of the dialog; you’ve simply acquired a bunch of 40-and-up adults within the room speaking about expertise and utterly ignoring how younger individuals wish to use it.”
David Evan Harris, senior coverage advisor for the California Initiative for Expertise and Democracy, mentioned he’s maintaining a tally of Washington as he prepares for the state session.
“There are individuals in Congress and within the White Home who’re attempting to make it unimaginable for states” to control AI, he mentioned. “They wish to take away that energy from the states and never exchange it with any sort of federal regulation, however exchange it with nothing.”
The White Home has a draft government order on maintain that might preempt state legal guidelines on synthetic intelligence by means of lawsuits and by withholding federal funds, Reuters reported Saturday.
When advocates converse out on the statehouse subsequent yr, Arnold can be amongst them. Since her daughter died three years in the past, she has co-founded Mother and father Rise — a grassroots advocacy group — and works to lift consciousness concerning the dangers youth face on-line.
Even earlier than Coco was focused by a predator, Arnold mentioned expertise had already taken a toll on their lives. Her once-lively daughter turned hooked on social media, withdrawing from actions she used to like. Arnold took Coco to remedy and restricted her time on-line, nevertheless it resulted in countless fights and created a rift between them.
“You assume your child is protected of their bed room, however these platforms present a portal into your house for predators and dangerous content material,” Arnold mentioned. “It’s like they’re simply strolling by means of the entrance door.”
