The panel discussed children’s online safety and artificial intelligence at a conference of Gen Z and Millennial lawmakers on Friday, July 10, 2026. Pictured, from left, moderator Diana Haber-Daws, South Carolina State Representative Brandon Guffey, Ohio State Representative Christine Cockley and Project Liberty President Tomicah Tilleman. (Photo: Amelia Twyman/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Young Democratic and Republican lawmakers from across the country reached agreement Friday on the need to regulate artificial intelligence and children’s online safety.
Lawmakers at the annual conference hosted by the Future Caucus, an organization that aims to strengthen two-way dialogue between Gen Z and Millennial leaders engaged in technology policy discussions, and states that have agreed to do so should impose some barriers to online activity, especially for children.
South Carolina state representative Brandon Guffey urged lawmakers to pursue policies that would hold Big Tech companies accountable for exposing children to harmful content online. He said he favors “barriers” to device bans because “we can’t keep kids offline right now.”
“I don’t want to take away anyone’s right to freedom,” the Republican said. “But ultimately we have a responsibility to protect the next generation.”
Guffey wrote Gavin’s Lawa law passed in 2023 that made “sexual extortion,” or the operate of explicit content for blackmail, a crime in the state. The bill is named in honor of his 17-year-old son Gavin Guffey, who lost his life in 2022. sex on the Internetand whose story Guffey shared with a room full of silent, attentive legislators.
Tomicah Tilleman, president of Project Liberty, an organization that works to shape and advance AI policy, also warned state lawmakers about the addictive nature of the technology, which he said comes at the expense of users’ personal data and ensures financial profits for tech companies.
“Take a hard look at the structures that got us where we are and start thinking at a first-principles level about how we can build something better,” Tilleman said.
State Rep. Christine Cockley, an Ohio Democrat, highlighted the growing problem of teenage people turning to AI chatbots for facilitate with suicide.
He’s working to pass his A Bill along with a Republican colleague who would require AI developers to build models based on a mental health framework because she said she was “sick of hearing” stories about chatbots helping children write suicide notes and encouraging self-harm.
“The most important thing I’ve learned is that we need to listen to people with experience to make good, sound policy,” Cockley said.
What to do with AI?
For the rest of the morning, artificial intelligence was the dominant topic.
State Representatives Monique Priestley, a Democrat from Vermont, and Joe Hogan, a Republican from Pennsylvania, discussed the speed and scale of artificial intelligence development in almost every sector of society and weighed the pros and cons of managing the technology at the state and federal levels.
Hogan said he believes countries can succeed in protecting children and consumers from chatbots, but he believes a “national framework” is more effective when it comes to developing real-world AI models.
On the other hand, Priestley said countries should lead on this issue because it would facilitate them address harm that only happens in certain areas.
She further added that it would protect states’ rights to self-government.
While the panelists expressed several different views on issues related to AI policy, they agreed that the technology requires government regulation.
“This is the only bipartisan issue on which we can unite and experiment,” Priestley said. “We are laboratories of democracy, and when we fear that we will not be those laboratories, I think all of America is let down by that.”
A bipartisan look to the future
Since 2017, the Future Caucus has convened summits of teenage lawmakers with the goal of strengthening bipartisanship.
This year’s Future Summit, as the meeting is called, focused on the country’s 250th birthday under the slogan “The Next 250 – The Courage to Build.”
Organizers invited Gen Z and Millennial lawmakers to look back at the history of American politics, share their visions for the country’s future and collaboratively develop a plan for the next chapter.
In addition to Friday’s sessions on internet safety and artificial intelligence, state lawmakers engaged in peer-led discussions throughout the week on topics such as passing bipartisan legislation, bridging the gap between elected officials and public sector voters, and empowering women in leadership positions.
“There is joy in this community that surprises people and comes from the discovery that politics doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game,” Future Caucus President and CEO Layla Zaidane said in a speech Thursday. “Solving problems (with people) who think differently than you is not only possible, but also extremely rewarding.”
