Policymakers risk repeating mistakes they made trying to govern social media in their rush to protect kids from potential harms posed by AI chatbots, according to a new report by a Washington, D.C. think tank.
In seeking solutions to real or alleged harms to children on social media, policymakers turned to flawed policies — such as age verification and outright bans — that cut children off from social media’s benefits instead of actually targeting its risks, the report published by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) maintained.
The report, written by policy analyst Alex Ambrose, contends that legislators are now recycling that playbook for artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots, or systems that process user inputs to respond with simulated conversation.
But the playbook doesn’t work for either AI or chatbots, it asserted.
At the same time, it continued, recent unfortunate events such as child suicides, violent shootings and radicalization of young people establish a clear need for effective chatbot regulations regarding children’s online safety.
But importing ineffective social media frameworks to chatbots fails to properly address children’s safety concerns while, at minimum, inconveniencing adult users, it added.
The report argues that the best ways for policymakers to address chatbot safety for children are to focus on transparency, targeted safeguards, and empowering parents.
"Focusing on transparency, targeted safeguards, and giving parents more control makes chatbots safer because these approaches can address documented harms, such as conversations delving into topics of extreme physical or mental harm, and features that enable unhealthy parasocial relationships with chatbots, while not overly restricting access to the technology," Ambrose told TechNewsWorld.
Transparency lets parents know what the chatbot can do and what data it collects, explained Rohit Poduval, a senior software engineer at Amazon and a member of the Integrity Institute , a global think tank made up of tech workers with hands-on experience identifying and mitigating harms on social media and internet platforms.
"Targeted safeguards address specific harms without blocking legitimate use," he told TechNewsWorld. "For example, you can prohibit a chatbot from simulating romantic relationships with minors without blocking homework help."
"Parental controls let families set boundaries that match their child's maturity," he said. "These three together put control where it belongs — with informed parents, appropriate access, clear rules for platforms."
"Of course, transparency and targeted safeguards are important to have in place with chatbots. However, it’s crucial that parents understand the risks they need to look out for to begin with," added Jeffrey Nadrich, founder and managing attorney of Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers in Los Angeles.
"In many instances, parents have no idea their child is having multi-hour conversations with a chatbot online," he told TechNewsWorld.
Madeline Pendley, an attorney with Rafferty Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., pointed out that while transparency, targeted safeguards and empowering parents can certainly make chatbots safer, they are only effective when platforms actually build, maintain, and require the use of those tools.
For example, the child-flag system proposed in the report is a great tool that should be implemented by AI platforms. "However, as applied, it still p…