State of Artificial Intelligence: Tech Company Accountability Debated in Federal Bill | Harrisburg
State of Artificial Intelligence: Tech Company Accountability Debated in Federal Bill | Harrisburg
Publish Date: 2026-05-27 17:16:00
Source Domain: www.weny.com
The debate on who should prevent children harm online– tech companies or parents– sparked disagreement between some federal lawmakers and state attorneys general.
In a recent letter of opposition, attorneys general criticized the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) act for not placing an enforceable “duty of care” on tech companies.
The letter was signed by attorneys general for 39 U.S. states and territories, including Pennsylvania’s Dave Sunday and New York’s Letitia James. A copy was sent to congressional leaders in Washington D.C..
The KIDS Act addresses data privacy, social media access, chatbots, online gaming, and other issues for minors online.
“The spirit of the idea is extremely important,” said Dr. Tiffany Perticini, the co chair of Penn State Behrend’s AI Taskforce.
Behind most of the bill’s principals is an expansion of rights for parents to stay involved with their children’s online activity.
“In the process of trying to do that, they’re also reducing the accountability of the tech companies themselves,” Perticini said.
Duty of care places the legal burden on tech companies to prevent children harms online, and could require them to change their designs and algorithms.
“Companies can do that. They actually can design that way,” Perticini said.
Specific changes could be age verification, or limiting doom scrolling.
“If we could create the tool that isn’t going to try to get them to sit there for hours and click, click, click, click, click,” Perticini said, “or get stuck in the oddest scroll like the autumn play and the auto scroll, it would be so amazing.”
Changing designs can lower company profits. A Harvard study estimated, roughly, that 27% of YouTube ad revenue could have come from users under the age of 18 in 2022.
Perticini says legal arguments are mirroring public debates.
“If…
