{"id":9056,"date":"2026-04-21T00:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/9056\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T00:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T00:47:18","slug":"missouri-house-forges-ahead-with-bill-targeting-ai-deepfakes-and-youth-social-media-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/9056\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri House forges ahead with bill targeting AI deepfakes and youth social media use"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Missouri House passed a bill<\/a> Monday aimed at curbing minors\u2019 access to social media, banning the distribution of \u201cdeepfakes\u201d and setting new requirements for social media platforms and some artificial intelligence developers.<\/p>\n

The legislation, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Wendy Hausman of St. Peters, combines<\/a> bills<\/a> offered by at least 10 lawmakers. And while it covers a range of digital media, Hausman described the legislation during debate last week as an effort to protect Missourians from the dangers of AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill draws a bright line,\u201d Hausman said. \u201cIf you intentionally use AI to harm, deceive or exploit, there are consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be a felony to share or threaten to share an AI-generated or other digital depiction of someone to harass, threaten or harm them, with a maximum penalty of four years in prison. The maximum penalty would be 10 years if the image depicts a minor.<\/p>\n

Social media platforms would be required to implement age verification measures to ensure youth under 16 can\u2019t create social media accounts and allow parents to oversee social media use by 16- and 17-year-olds. The bill would prohibit social media platforms from targeting minors with paid advertising or \u201caddictive or manipulative design features\u201d like \u201cinfinite scroll\u201d mechanisms and auto-playing content without time limits.<\/p>\n

Additionally, individuals or companies that develop AI or make it available to the public would be barred from advertising their product as a mental health professional or capable of providing therapy or mental health diagnoses. They would face a penalty of $10,000 for violating this measure, or $20,000 for subsequent offenses.<\/p>\n

The House voted 145 to 3 to advance the legislation to the Senate, with three Republicans in opposition.<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s advancement comes as lawmakers grapple with the stakes of establishing AI guardrails after President Donald Trump issued an executive order<\/a> in December warning states against passing \u201conerous\u201d AI legislation and threatening to withhold federal funding for rural high-speed internet access from those that do.<\/p>\n

The executive order established an AI Litigation Task Force within the U.S. Attorney General\u2019s Office to challenge state laws in conflict with the \u201cminimally burdensome national standard\u201d that Trump has called for. While the new task force has not filed any lawsuits against states, the White House has stymied AI legislation or successfully pushed changes in Utah<\/a> and Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republican state Sen. Joe Nicola of Grain Valley said he is in talks with the White House about a bill<\/a> he\u2019s sponsoring that would establish AI\u2019s \u201cnonsentience\u201d and specify that liability for harm caused by AI must rest with a person or organization.<\/p>\n

Nicola\u2019s bill encountered opposition in the Senate from Republicans who cautioned<\/a> it could run afoul of Trump and jeopardize $900 million in federal funding for rural high-speed internet development awarded to the state.<\/p>\n

Nicola told The Independent that while he is changing the portion of his bill dealing with AI developers\u2019 liability in response to White House feedback, a section establishing the sharing of deepfakes as a felony had not changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A bill sponsored by Republican state Rep. Scott Miller of St. Charles, which would also establish AI liability provisions, passed unanimously out of a House committee in March. The bill would\u00a0 absolve AI companies of criminal liability if they adhere to the federal AI Risk Management Framework<\/a> established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.<\/p>\n

That, Miller said, could attract business to Missouri.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt actually creates an appeal for people to relocate their AI business here, and the framework that we\u2019re using is the same framework that every federal contractor would have to be compliant with anyway,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers who sponsored parts of Hausman\u2019s bill emphasized that Missouri has lagged behind other states in passing AI legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Protections against deepfakes, said Republican state Rep. Bill Lucas of DeSoto, are \u201coverdue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are living at a time when technology is evolving faster than our laws,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cAnybody with the basic tools can create and share harmful digital images that can destroy reputations and careers in seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican state Rep. Melissa Schmidt of Eldridge told The Independent that while lawmakers behind the bill will \u201cyield to whatever we\u2019re asked to yield to\u201d by the federal government, they are determined to move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to even just get something foundational passed into law that we can come back next year and build off of, because right now there\u2019s nothing,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cWe are behind in this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 26 states already<\/a> have laws on AI-generated intimate depictions. And 46 states have some kind of AI legislation in effect, covering areas from the use of AI in political advertising to AI pricing algorithms.<\/p>\n

Democratic state Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs of St. Louis voted for Hausman\u2019s bill but asked the Senate to add a sunset clause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith AI technology advancing every day, we are legislating based on the best evidence that we have here today,\u201d Fuchs said. \u201cAs AI continues to advance, I believe we owe it to the public to revisit this.\u201d<\/p>\n

During debate last week, Hausman said she expects lawmakers to amend the legislation in future years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this bill is going to look the same in five years,\u201d Hausman said. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to completely change, and I hope it does because we need to change with technology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Missouri House passed a bill Monday aimed at curbing minors\u2019 access to social media, banning the distribution…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,3266,25,2975,7770,625,7768,7769,1109,7767,4862],"class_list":{"0":"post-9056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-developers","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-bill","12":"tag-digital-media","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-missouri-house","15":"tag-republican-state","16":"tag-social-media","17":"tag-wendy-hausman","18":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}