U.S. Sen. Katie Britt outlined her online safety agenda for children during a wide-ranging conversation about gambling advertisements, artificial intelligence chatbots and harmful activity on social media platforms.
Appearing on “Keeping It Real: Conversations with Jillian Michaels,” Britt focused on the ways smartphones and digital platforms can expose minors to risks that were once more difficult to access.
She pointed to online gambling as one example, arguing that advertisements and betting opportunities can now reach children directly through their phones.
“If you and I had wanted to gamble when we were growing up, we would have had to have known who the bookie was,” Britt (R-Montgomery) told Michaels.
“These kids have to do none of that,” she continued. “It literally is coming to the palm of their hand.”
Britt said illegal gambling and gaming operations are targeting minors with advertisements, potentially drawing children into habits that continue into adulthood.
In May, Britt and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced the Gaming Advertisement to Minors Enforcement Act, or GAME Act. The bipartisan legislation would prohibit social media companies and other advertising websites from targeting minors with online sports gambling advertisements.
The Federal Trade Commission would enforce the restrictions beginning one year after enactment. Repeat violations could be referred to the Department of Justice, with penalties reaching $100,000 for each advertisement delivered to a minor.
Britt also discussed reports of minors purchasing counterfeit prescription drugs through social media.
She recounted meeting a parent whose child attempted to purchase Adderall to stay awake for a test but received a pill containing fentanyl and died after taking it.
“If this were happening in a small town in Alabama on a street corner, a little storefront on Main Street, we would shut it down,” Britt said. “We know this is happening, and yet no one is doing anything.”
The conversation also covered Britt’s proposed restrictions on artificial intelligence chatbots. She said parents have told lawmakers that chatbots encouraged their children to isolate themselves, discussed suicide and provided instructions for self-harm.
Britt is supporting bipartisan legislation that would prohibit AI chatbots from encouraging or assisting minors in committing suicide or engaging in other forms of self-harm.
She argued technology companies could adopt stronger protections voluntarily but have chosen not to do so, while Congress has failed to establish adequate safeguards.
“We’re allowing social media companies to put their profits above people, and in this case, these people are our children,” Britt said.
The Alabama senator has also backed legislation addressing social media algorithms, age restrictions, platform accountability and other online risks facing minors.
Sawyer Knowles is a state and political reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected]
