David Crowley Announces Artificial Intelligence Policy Plan to Protect Wisconsin’s Kids and Seniors
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Today, David Crowley announced his new artificial intelligence and online safety policy to protect Wisconsin kids and seniors. As Governor, David will enact strict regulation on AI in Wisconsin, implementing stronger safeguards to protect Wisconsin’s kids, families, and seniors from big tech and Washington politicians like MAGA Congressman Tom Tiffany.
“Like so many parents, Ericka and I are raising our three girls in the age of social media and AI, and we’re navigating things no generation before us has ever had to, worrying about whether a stranger is messaging our kids, or a fake picture of our daughter is going around school, or even scammers trying to drain a grandparent’s life savings,” Crowley said. “Washington has had years to do something about it, but politicians like Congressman Tom Tiffany would rather protect Big Tech and the billionaires bankrolling him than our kids. I’m not going to wait around for DC to act, I’ve got a plan to protect Wisconsin’s kids and families, and as governor, I’m going to get it done.”
Wisconsin, like almost every other state, has not had the opportunity to pass comprehensive AI regulations that could prevent children from being sexually exploited and seniors from seeing their life savings ripped away from them. David, a father of three girls, will put the burden on big tech and social media companies to keep children safe online, not parents.
Crowley’s plan will include proper age restrictions, disallowing addictive features like unlimited scrolling for kids, forcing companies to properly approve and monitor ads and paying the penalty for their failures if someone gets scammed, and empowering families to sue these companies when they fail, and greater transparency from advertisers.
Crowley’s proposal will:
- Put the burden on Big Tech, not families. Require platforms to set kids’ accounts, and new accounts for everyone, to the highest privacy settings by default, cutting off unsolicited messages from strangers and scammers. Those over 18 will have the option to turn off these restrictions.
- End addictive design for kids. Prohibit features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and engagement-maximizing feeds on minors’ accounts and ban push notifications to kids overnight and during the school day. This is an age restriction that is tied to addictive features. A nationwide version of this could encourage the development of new social media platforms that do not use addictive features. States from South Carolina to Nebraska to California have implemented this sort of safety feature.
- Ban surveillance advertising. Ban surveillance advertising to remove the profit incentive for Big Tech to harvest our data, making it harder for bad actors to use tech’s tools to scam vulnerable consumers or exploit kids.
- Give families the power to sue. Let parents take platforms to court when their design choices or recommendations, including content promoting suicide, eating disorders, or drug sales, harm a child.
- Set guardrails on AI chatbots. Restrict AI companion apps for children under 13, require clear disclosures on any AI chatbot designed to form emotional bonds with individuals, and prohibit chatbots from posing as doctors, therapists, or other licensed professionals.
- Crack down on predators and deepfakes. Increase penalties for online predators and sextortion, and close the loophole so that creating or sharing AI-generated sexual images of children carries the same penalties as any other child exploitation offense, building on the protections Wisconsin passed this year.
- Hold platforms liable for scam ads. Penalize tech companies that knowingly profit from scam ads or let their services be used for scams and fraud. Companies like Meta generate 99% of their revenue from advertising and are abdicating their responsibility to protect their users.
- Know your customer rules for digital ads. Require platforms to verify the identity of advertisers before they can target Wisconsinites, and to find and remove fake accounts more aggressively.
- Make platforms answer to users. Require an easy-to-use scam reporting tool, and require platforms to confirm every report and say what action they took within a set timeframe.
- Back enforcement with real resources. Aggressively fund DOJ and DATCP efforts to battle online fraud and enforce anti-trust law. Support additional legislation to enhance enforcement powers and restitution as needed.
- Help victims recover and invest upstream. Invest in county and tribal Adult Protective Services and Aging and Disability Resource Centers so no one is ashamed to ask for help.
Republicans in Congress like Tom Tiffany are making this problem worse. He previously passed $68 billion in tax cuts for the same tech companies racing each other to develop AI without restriction, and cast the deciding vote on a bill that would prevent states from regulating AI. He skipped a vote on the House floor to protect children from harmful AI chatbots.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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