EPIC Model Platform Design Legislation Introduced in Georgia and Kansas

Lawmakers in Georgia and Kansas introduced bills based on EPIC’s Model Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC) legislation this week to protect users from online harm and promote safer platform design. Kansas also introduced the People-First Chatbot Bill, a model bill released by EPIC, Consumer Federation of America, and Fairplay late last year.

As momentum continues to build in state legislatures to protect children and all users from online harm, both pieces of model legislation provide strong safeguards while taking a careful approach to withstand litigation challenges.  

The Georgia bill, SB 495, and the Kansas bill, SB 499, both prohibit specific high-risk design practices for kids, require large companies to evaluate design features for risk of compulsive use before implementing them for users, and provide kids with meaningful agency over their online experiences by creating a “privacy by default” system.

Kansas’s SB 499 also includes the People-First Chatbot Bill, which gives lawmakers a straightforward approach to address the harms caused by chatbots that have been developed and deployed by tech companies with little oversight or transparency. In combination, the Kansas AADC and the People-First Chatbot bill will go a long way toward protecting privacy and ensuring digital platforms, including chatbots, are designed safely and responsibly.

EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald testified this week in support of the Georgia AADC. She encouraged the Senate Children and Families Committee to pass the Georgia AADC, illustrating why responsible platform design is key to addressing kids’ safety and privacy online.

“The more time a user spends on certain online products, the more money companies make,” Fitzgerald said in her testimony. “As a result, many tech companies, from social media to video games, chatbots, and more, engineer their products to be ‘addictive.’” She cautioned that parents should not and cannot solve this problem on their own, instead urging the Committee pass the AADC to require the companies building these platforms to take responsibility for integrating privacy and safety by design.

Learn more about EPIC’s Model AADC here and the People-First Chatbot Bill here. EPIC is happy to speak with any policymaker working on these issues or to provide a Word document of either model bill text. Please contact Kara Williams at [email protected] with any questions.