By Liz Nass
Gongwer News Service
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Sen. Dayna Polehanki held a roundtable with parents, students and anti-big tech advocates last Thursday to address social media addiction among minors and Senate bills that look to curb the dangerous impacts.
Polehanki, D-Livonia, is championing bills awaiting a vote on the Senate floor to enact stronger regulations governing social media access by minors and stiffer parental consent provisions including the bill she is sponsoring, SB 760, which would create a Leading Ethical AI Development for Kids Act to block minors from accessing AI chatbots.
The other bills, SB 757, sponsored by Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, would ban social media platforms from pushing addictive, data-driven feeds to minors without parental approval, as well as SB 758 and SB 759, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-Saint Clair Shores, which would create more data privacy protection provisions for minors.
“We can't keep asking kids themselves and parents to bear the consequence of technologies that prioritize engagement over profit and safety, and so these bills draw that line that we need that says innovation must come with responsibility and protecting kids has to come first,” Polehanki said.
Part of the bills include age verification standards, since self-attestation has led to many minors being on social media at a young age, Polehanki said. Instead, the bills would utilize tools like gambling and dating sites use by snapping a selfie and letting the technology analyze it through facial recognition, alongside use of government ID.
However, Alisha Meneely, government and community relations at Michigan Child Protection Agency, said many times with children’s media like Roblox, the age verification technology has never worked the way it was supposed to, even when scanning their child’s face.
Yosef Getachew, senior policy counsel at Reset, a nonprofit that works on internet legislation, said it’s not a perfect system, and many times they see a 90% affirmation rate on verifying the age the child puts in, but it is improving in time.
Polehanki conceded they still have a long way to go with this technology but believes it will only get better and more accurate with time.
Most of the bill package’s criticism stems from questions of the First Amendment, looking to control online content.
With this, Polehanki said they have asked experts to track the current court cases dealing with dangerous social media claims to see how to get the bills to the finish line in a way that it can pass without being overturned in court.
Nessel also said she is watching cases on this, one pending appeal in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio that claimed the state’s law on requiring parental consent for users under 16 violates the First Amendment. She said a decision on this may help understand how to proceed forward on the bills.
Nessel’s department is monitoring ways on how to reframe language and make the bills less susceptible to court challenges, because if the department is the party “charged with enforcement than (they need to) make sure that enforcement is going to be deemed legal by both state and federal courts,” she said.
Other criticism came from groups like Meta and Google, which Polehanki said she will take to heart, but will continue to put kids first.
“While it's nice to have their feedback, that's not what we're looking at to make our determination about these bills,” Polehanki said.
In one of the substitutes in the bill for AI chatbot use, Polehanki said she has been trying to define unsafe chatbot features to the extent that they can’t completely ban the chatbots, leaving just a small window for educational purposes.
Nessel said she can’t help but feel frustrated the Michigan Legislature has to take the reins on this legislation “because Congress won’t” as AI companies are becoming more politically active and some of the wealthiest companies in the world.
Zahrah Fadel, legal counsel to companies including AI companies, said the AI legislation feels like “a seatbelt moment,” the national government not taking any ownership and infighting.
However, even with the infighting, Nessel says she believes this might be the most bipartisan issue she’s ever come across.
But, Polehanki said when it comes to supporters of the bill, she would like to see it be more bipartisan, with a long list of organizations against the bill, saying she is a little nervous about the
chances of it passing even out of the Senate.
In being part of an event hosted by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on the harms of social media, Getachew said he got a good sense she would be in support of the bill and made strong points about the need for accountability.
However, in the House, Rep. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills, told Gongwer News Service recently that he believes the Senate bills aim too much at content and technology, the state not having the wherewithal to monitor AI algorithms, and content regulation could open doors to First Amendment infringement claims.
He instead propped up his own bill, HB 4388, as a better option to address the issue as it is simple contract law to establish age verification and consent requirements for social media accounts, putting parents in control.
Polehanki told reporters at the roundtable that she would love if he would join the package to be a cross-chamber effort and add it to the package because she is “for it.”
Gongwer News Service
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Sen. Dayna Polehanki held a roundtable with parents, students and anti-big tech advocates last Thursday to address social media addiction among minors and Senate bills that look to curb the dangerous impacts.
Polehanki, D-Livonia, is championing bills awaiting a vote on the Senate floor to enact stronger regulations governing social media access by minors and stiffer parental consent provisions including the bill she is sponsoring, SB 760, which would create a Leading Ethical AI Development for Kids Act to block minors from accessing AI chatbots.
The other bills, SB 757, sponsored by Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, would ban social media platforms from pushing addictive, data-driven feeds to minors without parental approval, as well as SB 758 and SB 759, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Hertel, D-Saint Clair Shores, which would create more data privacy protection provisions for minors.
“We can't keep asking kids themselves and parents to bear the consequence of technologies that prioritize engagement over profit and safety, and so these bills draw that line that we need that says innovation must come with responsibility and protecting kids has to come first,” Polehanki said.
Part of the bills include age verification standards, since self-attestation has led to many minors being on social media at a young age, Polehanki said. Instead, the bills would utilize tools like gambling and dating sites use by snapping a selfie and letting the technology analyze it through facial recognition, alongside use of government ID.
However, Alisha Meneely, government and community relations at Michigan Child Protection Agency, said many times with children’s media like Roblox, the age verification technology has never worked the way it was supposed to, even when scanning their child’s face.
Yosef Getachew, senior policy counsel at Reset, a nonprofit that works on internet legislation, said it’s not a perfect system, and many times they see a 90% affirmation rate on verifying the age the child puts in, but it is improving in time.
Polehanki conceded they still have a long way to go with this technology but believes it will only get better and more accurate with time.
Most of the bill package’s criticism stems from questions of the First Amendment, looking to control online content.
With this, Polehanki said they have asked experts to track the current court cases dealing with dangerous social media claims to see how to get the bills to the finish line in a way that it can pass without being overturned in court.
Nessel also said she is watching cases on this, one pending appeal in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio that claimed the state’s law on requiring parental consent for users under 16 violates the First Amendment. She said a decision on this may help understand how to proceed forward on the bills.
Nessel’s department is monitoring ways on how to reframe language and make the bills less susceptible to court challenges, because if the department is the party “charged with enforcement than (they need to) make sure that enforcement is going to be deemed legal by both state and federal courts,” she said.
Other criticism came from groups like Meta and Google, which Polehanki said she will take to heart, but will continue to put kids first.
“While it's nice to have their feedback, that's not what we're looking at to make our determination about these bills,” Polehanki said.
In one of the substitutes in the bill for AI chatbot use, Polehanki said she has been trying to define unsafe chatbot features to the extent that they can’t completely ban the chatbots, leaving just a small window for educational purposes.
Nessel said she can’t help but feel frustrated the Michigan Legislature has to take the reins on this legislation “because Congress won’t” as AI companies are becoming more politically active and some of the wealthiest companies in the world.
Zahrah Fadel, legal counsel to companies including AI companies, said the AI legislation feels like “a seatbelt moment,” the national government not taking any ownership and infighting.
However, even with the infighting, Nessel says she believes this might be the most bipartisan issue she’s ever come across.
But, Polehanki said when it comes to supporters of the bill, she would like to see it be more bipartisan, with a long list of organizations against the bill, saying she is a little nervous about the
chances of it passing even out of the Senate.
In being part of an event hosted by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on the harms of social media, Getachew said he got a good sense she would be in support of the bill and made strong points about the need for accountability.
However, in the House, Rep. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills, told Gongwer News Service recently that he believes the Senate bills aim too much at content and technology, the state not having the wherewithal to monitor AI algorithms, and content regulation could open doors to First Amendment infringement claims.
He instead propped up his own bill, HB 4388, as a better option to address the issue as it is simple contract law to establish age verification and consent requirements for social media accounts, putting parents in control.
Polehanki told reporters at the roundtable that she would love if he would join the package to be a cross-chamber effort and add it to the package because she is “for it.”
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