SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Practices of social media companies involving kids, including alleged addictive features, were so concerning that Utah launched lawsuits against the firms — but now, a state lawmaker trying to advance child protections for artificial intelligence calls AI chatbot companions “social media on steroids.”
Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Salt Lake County, maintained that nearly three-quarters of teens have used the bots, which engage in human-like conversations.
“We thought social media was bad,” Fiefia said. “They’re validating everything that these kids are saying, and these kids are trusting them with their deepest and darkest secrets that they wouldn’t even tell their parents.”
2026 Legislative Session (Graphic: KUTV)
Fiefia said the chatbots are exposing kids to “explicit and inappropriate material, and in some cases, walking them through self-harm and potentially suicide.”
A Fiefia bill would ban AI operators from offering chatbots that give harmful material to minors — a measure still alive, but which has not passed the Utah Senate with just a couple of days left in the session.
His proposal to require big AI company transparency — by posting public safety and child protection plans online — is going nowhere after the Trump administration, intent on enacting federal AI policy, objected.
Jennie DeSerio, who said her teenage son, Mason, took his life after being fed algorithm-driven content on social media encouraging suicide, said the Legislature is not doing enough to regulate AI.
“Utah parents need help,” she said. “All parents in the country need help, and this bill had the bite that we need.”
DeSerio co-founded a group called Parents Rise which has pushed for AI controls.
She and nine other parents who lost children signed a February letter to Governor Cox, House Speaker Mike Schultz, Senate President Stuart Adams, and Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, urging them to adopt what now seems certain to fail this session.
“Our kids are no longer here, and we speak up when we fear more parents will lose kids too,” they said. “Congress has not acted, and there is no federal framework for AI transparency, no child safety standard, and nothing on the horizon.”
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