With the White House’s recent executive order establishing federal authority over AI models that operate across state lines, the administration has made clear its goals: accelerate American innovation and ensure the United States stays ahead of global competitors like China. While we pursue those goals, we must also consider the negative impact of AI on our children and our national soul. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes we made with social media. For years, Americans were told that social media was harmless. While we waited for federal action, platforms designed to maximize engagement quietly reshaped childhood. The results are now undeniable: soaring rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and loneliness. No serious observer doubts that the perverse incentives behind these technologies played a central role in fomenting these conditions. We saw the danger too late. By the time we started to contemplate guardrails, the harm had already spread across a generation. We cannot make that mistake again with AI. Artificial intelligence is far more powerful and intimate than social media. AI tools can mimic human relationships, exploit emotional vulnerabilities, and manipulate at a level of personalization never before possible. Today, AI “companions” marketed to teenagers simulate romance and sexuality. Chatbots role-play explicit scenarios with minors. Deepfakes make it nearly impossible to distinguish real images from synthetic ones. Predators and foreign adversaries can weaponize these tools instantly, at scale, and at almost no cost.
These harms are already spreading, and we can’t stand by as a new wave of technologies reshapes childhood for the worse. The stakes are too high.
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