EXCLUSIVE: Victims of AI Fight for Utah Bill Opposed by Trump Administration

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EXCLUSIVE: Victims of AI Fight for Utah Bill Opposed by Trump Administration

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. (Chris Samuels/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell / @TheElizMitchell

Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell is the White House Correspondent for "The Daily Signal." Send her an email.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Jennie DeSerio lost her 16-year-old son to suicide after she says he was inundated with self-harm videos on TikTok. Now, she is leading a group of parents fighting for Utah to pass a law protecting kids online.

The Trump administration, however, has taken a firm stance against the bill.

Ten parents who say they lost their children to online harms such as fentanyl sales, cyberbullying, sextortion, and self-harm pushed by social media algorithms and AI chatbots, wrote a letter to Utah’s governor and congressional leadership asking them to pass House Bill 286. The legislation would require tech companies to publish safety and child-protection plans.

The parents asked Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, House Speaker Mike Schultz, Senate President Stuart Adams, and Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, all Republicans, to “stand up to David Sacks” and “his idea that the American people are less valuable than AI companies” by moving the bill forward.

The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs sent a letter to the bill sponsor saying the Trump administration is “categorically opposed” to the legislation and views it as an “unfixable bill that goes against the Administration’s AI Agenda.” That prompted the parents to petition Utah’s leadership.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy has not take an official stance against the bill.

“The choice being made at the federal level is to choose the AI industry over the rights of states like Utah and the safety of everyday Americans,” the letter says. “You have never made that choice, and your residents and their children are counting on you not to back down.”

“His agenda is the fastest possible growth of the AI industry,” the letter says of Sacks. “Our children’s safety is an obstacle to that agenda, not a priority within it. Unelected officials in D.C. who are unwilling to engage with this bill on its merits, unwilling to sit with the families paying the price for the status quo, have not earned the authority to kill it.”

A White House official previously told The Daily Signal the president supports AI regulation protecting minors, as outlined in Trump’s Dec. 11 executive order, “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence.”

“To give the American people confidence in AI, President Trump has called for an AI policy framework that protects children, prevents censorship, respects intellectual property, and safeguards communities,” a White House spokesperson told The Daily Signal in response to the letter. “We continue to have productive conversations with state and local leaders as we work with Congress towards national AI legislation, as directed in the president’s Executive Order.”

The Utah parents argue that now the dangers of social media are clear, the state must stop history from repeating itself with the growth of AI.

“We know exactly what it looks like when a powerful industry moves fast and dismisses concern because they are counting on no one being held responsible,” the letter continues. “We know where that road ends for families. And when we look at what is happening with AI, and at who is trying to stop HB 286, we are watching the same deadly cycle begin again.”

The parents say AI is already creeping into the lives of children, just like social media.

“The social media companies now facing trial for harms against our children never had to disclose what they knew about the risks to our children using their platforms,” the letter says. “Now those same companies are fighting us in legislatures to get away with it again on AI.”

DeSerio’s son Mason developed a social media addiction after going through a breakup in high school.

One night after DeSerio took Mason’s phone away, he had a mental break and came downstairs acting out of character. He punched his mother and then went into his room took his life, according to DeSerio.

A few weeks later, she looked at his TikTok history and saw that over the course of 13 days, he became inundated with videos glorifying suicide.

“The algorithm got to him,” she said. “Social media murdered my son.”

Though DeSerio cannot get her son back, she is fighting to prevent other families from losing their children. But without transparency and accountability laws, nothing is going to change, she says.

“This isn’t a First Amendment issue,” DeSerio said. “This is just, before we release a product, we’re going to let you know every safety testing result, and when something is missed and it harms kids, reporting that.”

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