White House Pushes to Block State AI Laws Using Kids' Safety as a Deal-Maker

The White House is working on a plan that would protect kids online while also blocking states from making their own laws about artificial intelligence. Top officials met with children's safety groups and big tech companies on Monday to talk about the idea. The goal is to pass one set of national rules instead of letting each state create different rules. But the plan is already facing pushback from both safety advocates and lawmakers.

The White House wants to pair kids' safety bills with a rule called 'preemption.' Preemption means that a federal law overrides state laws on the same topic. If this passes, states would not be able to make their own AI rules on issues the federal law already covers. Some people worry this could stop states from acting even when children need protection.

On Monday, White House officials met with leaders from four children's safety groups. The officials included Michael Kratsios, who leads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Ryan Baasch from the National Economic Council. Staff from the offices of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and First Lady Melania Trump also attended. A White House official said the meetings were held to 'gather feedback from stakeholders' and that nothing had been decided yet.

The White House asked the groups about two bills they want to include in the package. The first is the Kids Online Safety Act, known as KOSA, which would require tech companies to reduce harms to children on their platforms. The second is the App Store Accountability Act, which would force app stores to verify the ages of their users. The groups were told these two bills would be the core of the package, with more pieces added later through negotiations.

Some of the children's safety groups said they would only support the plan if stronger protections were added. They pushed for a bill called the GUARD Act, which would regulate AI chatbots to keep kids safe. Jon Schweppe, a senior adviser at the American Principles Project who attended the meeting, said the groups 'really made the case' for including it. He said White House officials seemed open to the idea.

Not everyone was happy about the preemption part of the plan. One children's safety advocate, who spoke without giving their name, said it is not normal to trade a kids' safety bill for something much broader. They worried the plan would block states from taking future action to protect children. Several attendees pushed the White House to narrow what state laws would be blocked.

The White House also met separately with major tech companies, including Apple, Meta, Google, and xAI. All of these companies have said they would prefer one national set of rules over a 'patchwork' of different state laws. However, Apple and Google both oppose the App Store Accountability Act, while Meta supports it. Getting all the companies to agree will be a big challenge.

Senator Marsha Blackburn is leading the effort to write the final bill. Her spokesperson said the plan is 'not blanket preemption of all laws regulating AI or child safety.' Instead, it would only stop states from making laws about topics that the federal package already addresses. The plan is also expected to include the NO FAKES Act, which would protect people from AI-generated fakes and deepfakes of themselves.

Passing this plan will not be easy. Any bill in the Senate needs 60 votes to move forward, which means it would need support from both Republicans and Democrats. Representative Lori Trahan, a Democrat who recently co-wrote a different AI bill, said Blackburn's effort has sounded 'partisan' to her. She does not think it has a strong chance of passing without more cooperation between the two parties. Schweppe said he believes the odds have improved now that the White House is involved, but big questions remain about whether Democrats will get on board.