“Ohio law needs real consequences connected with it. The Ohio Attorney General and county prosecutors must have clear legal tools to hold these tech companies criminally and civilly accountable,” DeWine said.
His calls for further regulation are an extension of previous legislative successes under DeWine’s belt. He championed a bill — which later became law — that required school districts to generally ban cellphones during learning hours. On Tuesday, he attested that the bill has resulted in Ohio’s children “getting their lives back,” at least in the classroom.
“But, what is happening to our young people today goes beyond phones in schools,” DeWine said. “It’s a larger issue about their access to screens and phones and social media and the internet when they are outside of the classroom.”
He went on to raise concerns about the decline in time children spend reading books and the copious screentime that has replaced analog activities.
“Hours on the cellphone, iPad or Chromebook, is time children are not outside playing with friends, time that they’re not getting enough sleep, time they’re not reading a book, time they’re not exercising or playing sports, time they’re not learning real social skills or so many of the other important skills that will help them live up to their full potential,” DeWine said.
Legislative response on tech
In a press conference following DeWine’s address, Republican legislative leaders didn’t exactly take DeWine’s handoff and run with it. Their apprehension is partly formed by the longstanding debate of whether tech regulations ought to be a responsibility of the federal government or the states.
“I think everybody understands that as AI emerges and as AI develops, there’s an emerging risk associated with it that it will be used for ill purposes, if you will, and nobody wants to see that,” said Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon. “I know we’ve passed some things in the past that have dealt with this, but we always need to be mindful of what we can do going forward to protect Ohioans.”
McColley added: “Naturally, I suspect there’s gonna be some emerging case law nationally surrounding states’ role in regulating AI, which is inherently not something that stops at state lines, so I would say this is going to be an issue we’re going to have to deal with for the next decade or more.”
House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said he saw at least a limited role in how the state can handle tech regulations, particularly by structuring the state’s tort laws to put liability on tech companies for negative consequences of their products.
Huffman said the impact of tech on young people has been “horrible.”
“We have this whole set of teenagers … who have increased rates of suicide, of depression, of all sorts of things, because of using a smartphone. And there’s no question about that,” Huffman said.
Still, Huffman offered a stifled response to what the legislature will actually work to achieve.
“The law is going to have to catch up with this,” Huffman said. “This isn’t my area of expertise, and maybe with the exception of half a dozen people in the House that have more knowledge than most of us, we’re going to have to be advised about how we go forward.”
Democrats, for their part, signaled a willingness to work with DeWine to minimize the dangers of tech, despite their general critique of his address.
“Democrats are ready for bipartisan deliberation and discussion (to hold) the companies accountable as this technology continues to evolve,” said Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, in a Tuesday press conference.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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