In a news conference on Monday, Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R) and state Senate Majority Caucus Chair Senator Jason Anavitarte (R) said they plan to introduce the bill during the state’s 2024 legislative session, my colleague Olafimihan Oshin reported.
The proposed legislation would require social media platforms to take concrete steps to verify the age of their users. Existing rules requiring school systems in the state to monitor bullying and educate students and teachers on the issues of social media would also be updated “to reflect the realities of modern technology.”
Social media companies will also be required to remove features that are addictive to children, according to the proposed legislation.
Anavitarte also said that the legislation would be modeled on a law in Louisiana that was passed earlier this year.
Louisiana’s state legislature passed a bill in June that bans “interactive computer services” from allowing people under 18 years old to sign up for accounts on social media platforms without their parents’ consent, according to The Verge.
Nearly a dozen Wall Street firms have agreed to pay $289 million in penalties over their “widespread and longstanding failures” to preserve company communications from iMessage, WhatsApp and Signal, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Tuesday.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) sent a letter to Google leaders Tuesday, warning the company over its testing of Med-PaLM 2 artificial intelligence (AI) in hospitals. In a rollout of the technology earlier this year, Google said the AI tool could answer medical questions to assist health care providers. The first-of-its-kind tech is being tested in a limited capacity at medical facilities including the Mayo Clinic, The Wall …
The White House on Tuesday held its first-ever cybersecurity “summit” on the ransomware attacks plaguing U.S. schools, in which criminal hackers have dumped online sensitive student data, including medical records, psychiatric evaluations and even sexual assault reports.
News we’ve flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics:
Stability AI is losing executives, engineers
Artificial Intelligence (AI) image generator company Stability AI, a startup based in London, is losing executives and engineers among other struggles facing the company after its early success, Bloomberg News reported.
TikTok to host music competition
Short-form video platform TikTok announced it will be hosting its first music competition, Mashable reported.
In Other News
Branch out with other reads on The Hill:
Zoom, which thrived on the remote work revolution, wants workers back in the office part-time
NEW YORK (AP) — The company whose name became synonymous with remote work is joining the growing return-to-office trend. Zoom, the video conferencing pioneer, is asking employees who live within a 50-mile radius of its offices to work onsite two days a week, a company spokesperson confirmed in an …
A former Trump White House lawyer took aim at former President Trump’s “aspirational” defense in his federal Jan. 6 case, where he is charged … Read more
All eyes are on Georgia this week, where yet another indictment of former President Trump is expected imminently. Fulton County District Attorney … Read more
