AI Needs Child-Safety Guardrails Now
March 5, 2026
The landmark social media addiction trials happening now in Los Angeles are revealing the depths to which tech companies knowingly designed products that harm children. It’s clearer than ever that the designs of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat generate compulsive use, sleep disruption, negative social comparison, anxiety, eating disorders, depression, suicidal ideation, and exposure to drug dealers and sexual predators. The ultimate result is a generation of kids and teens with declining mental health and, in far too many cases, the loss of life.
While these trials are looking at the deleterious effects of social media usage, they should also serve as a stark warning about the dangers of untethered AI development. We must take steps to protect kids from AI now, before another generation is harmed because we trusted Big Tech to do the right thing.
