Gov. Lamont signs new protections for kids on social media
Parents will have more control over their kids' social media feeds under the bipartisan law. But tech companies warn that it could mean less privacy for users.
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Concerned about what your kids see on TikTok and Instagram?
Parents will have more control over social media feeds, and workers will know when artificial intelligence is making hiring decisions, thanks to sweeping new regulations that Gov. Ned Lamont signed on Tuesday.
The law received wide bipartisan support – but it faces pushback from the tech industry, small businesses and even the White House.
“THEY’RE SO MEAN”
Andrea Chopite’s children are still young, but she already worries about social media.
“My fear with that is the bully part of the kids,” the Southport mother said. “They’re so mean.”
It’s not just other kids though. Congressional investigations have shown that algorithms can fill teens’ feed with videos about self-harm and eating disorders.
“For us adults, it’s hard to deal with social media,” Chopite said. “It gives you anxiety. It somehow makes you feel insecure, sometimes for no reason at all.”
NEW PROTECTIONS
Under the new law, apps will need parental consent to show your child a personalized feed. Plus, those feeds will be limited to one hour a day – unless a parent changes the setting.
Kids will no longer receive notifications after 9 p.m. and they will see a pop-up warning about the mental health risks of social media.
“I feel like that would help a little,” Chopite said. “Because they’re going to have to, like, fight harder, you know, to get the parents’ consent.”
The new rules don’t take effect until 2028 to give platforms time to prepare.
“We see the damage it’s doing to our young people,” said state Rep. Dave Rutigliano (R-Trumbull). “We see what Roblox is up to.”
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is investigating the online gaming platform Roblox.
The new law also targets AI chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT, which will have to make “reasonable efforts” to detect suicidal users and direct them to get help.
“In California, a young boy was coached through death by suicide,” said state Sen. James Maroney (D-Milford). “The chatbot even instructed him to hide the noose marks on his neck and other things so his parents wouldn’t find out.”
TECH INDUSTRY: PROS AND CONS
The tech industry is raising concerns – especially around privacy.
“Determining a user’s age inherently requires collecting additional sensitive data from those users,” said Kyle Sepe, with the Computer and Communications Industry Association. “Every approach to age determination presents trade-offs between accuracy and privacy – in addition to significant costs, especially for startups.”
Social media platforms said they will have to collect more invasive information to comply with the new law.
“Strict age verification, which would require confirming a user’s age without collecting additional personally identifiable information, is not technically feasible while still respecting users’ rights, privacy and security,” testified Brianna January, with the trade group Center For Progress. “As a result, providers are likely to collect additional personal information to distinguish minors from adults, including behavioral profiling or identity-based checks.”
But others praised the law’s added AI workforce training.
“The bill the governor is about to sign is, in my opinion, the most thoughtful piece of AI legislation I have seen from any state in this country,” said Vahid Behzadan, co-founder of the Connecticut AI Alliance. “It does not freeze technology in place. It establishes something that we have been missing – accountability without paralysis.”
EMPLOYERS FACE NEW RULES
Beginning in October 2027, Connecticut employers will also have to tell you when they use artificial intelligence to make hiring decisions,
“Transparency,” Lamont said. “You can know if AI is involved in the decision.”
But small businesses worry about lawsuits for using common resume screening tools.
“For example, a 15-employee manufacturing shop posts a job on an online job search platform and receives 200 applications,” said Chris Davis, with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. “This small employer would now potentially have to provide a human review to the 199 applicants that did not receive the job, creating a massive compliance burden for a manufacturing shop that likely would not have a HR department.”
For years, businesses' concerns led Lamont to block new AI regulations. Previous versions included a ban on “algorithmic discrimination” against people applying for jobs, loans, health care, college admissions and housing.
This year, Lamont said he’s tired of waiting for Congress to act.
“I often thought this is something the feds ought to take the lead on, because rather than have 50 states all doing it, it gets complicated,” he said. “The feds are not doing it; they’re punting back to the states.”
TRUMP LEGAL CHALLENGE?
Connecticut’s new rules could face a legal challenge. President Donald Trump has threatened to sue states that regulate AI on their own.
“State-by-state regulation by definition creates a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes that makes compliance more challenging, particularly for start-ups,” Trump wrote in a December 2025 executive order.
But even Trump’s fellow Republicans are taking on the industry. On Monday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued OpenAI and the company’s founder, Sam Altman.
“Mass shooters have been aided and abetted in deadly rampages, vulnerable people have been encouraged into suicide, professionals have suffered public humiliation, users have lost critical thinking skills, and minors have become addicted to a tool that feigns human compassion to collect their data with no parental oversight,” the lawsuit alleges.
