U.S. Senator Katie Britt Joins Keeping It Real: Conversations with Jillian Michaels to Discuss Taking on Big Tech, Protecting America’s Youth Online

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Katie Britt joined Keeping It Real: Conversations with Jillian Michaels, for a long-form discussion about Big Tech and social media, AI chatbots, the gambling industry targeting minors, and the adverse effects each has on America's youth. Excerpts from the interview are below.

Michaels opened the episode by highlighting Senator Britt's leadership:

"Kids are being targeted online in plain sight, and in today's show, we're naming names. Big Tech has built a digital Pandora's box for our kids, consisting of hard drugs and predators, two clicks away from a homework app. You've got AI friends grooming lonely kids at 2 AM and gambling ads are following them from YouTube to their video games … Senator Katie Britt is one of the very few people in Washington actually trying to shut this down. She's been described as a mom in Congress, pushing an arsenal of bills from Sammy's Law, the Kids Off Social Media Act, the GUARD Act, the Stop the Scroll Act, and the GAME Act to drag kids out of Big Tech's experiment."

Senator Britt on why taking on Big Tech is a priority for her:

"Look, the thing that's most important to me are my husband and my kids, and I feel honored to have the opportunity to represent the great state of Alabama. But I tell people every day, I don't have to ask people what it's like to raise kids right now, I am living it. And so, I know for so many people, my friends in particular, this social media space is uncharted territory. Jillian, you and I, when we grew up, we didn't have these complexities. I mean, growing up is hard enough as it is. And then we layer on top of it all of the things that social media has brought into our children's life.

"First off, I think Big Tech could do many of these things on their own and have chosen not to. So, I think continuing to apply the pressure there so that there is a change in behavior from that perspective. But then also Congress has been completely and totally feckless in this arena. And at the end of the day, we're allowing social media companies to put their profits above people, and in this case, these people are our children."

On minors buying drugs on social media platforms:

"In particular, Snapchat has been egregious in this space … I've sat across from a parent whose child bought an Adderall because they wanted to stay up for a test. They took the Adderall. It was laced with fentanyl. They died … Parents aren't aware that this is happening. So, number one, we've got to bring attention to it. But number two, we have to stop it because, Jillian, if this were happening in a small town in Alabama on a street corner, you know, a little storefront on Main Street, we would shut it down. We know this is happening, and yet no one is doing anything."

On the alarming rise in underage gambling online:

"If you and I had wanted to gamble when we were growing up, we would have had to have known who the bookie was. We would have had to have his number or hers … We would have had to know when they were going to be by their landline phone, and we would have had to call them to place our bet. These kids have to do none of that. It literally is coming to the palm of their hand. So, it's not only that they can gamble, and with a click of a button, it's also that these illegal gambling operations and gaming operations are actually targeting our children with advertisements. So, what is happening is these kids are getting stuck in a cycle. They're finding themselves in a very adult situation, but it's also one that unfortunately, they're continuing throughout their life. So, we put together the GAME Act, Senator Blumenthal and I did, to say, look, this is common sense, Jillian. You shouldn't be able to deliver advertisements about gambling until you're 18."

On the danger of AI chatbots:

"I have sat across from too many parents at this point that have told us … that their child died by suicide. When they went back into the child's history, an AI chatbot had told them to distance themselves from their parents, isolate themselves from their parents, had told them … to consider death by suicide, then told them how to do it, and then ultimately encouraged them to follow through with it. And so, we have a bill Josh Hawley, Senator Blumenthal, Chris Murphy-obviously a wide swath from the political spectrum-that it is saying, guys, AI chatbots should not be able to teach these kids how to take their own life. This is common sense. This is something we should all be able to get behind."

Michaels and Senator Britt also discussed how social media algorithms exploit children, Section 230 reform, and more of Senator Britt's bipartisan legislation on social media and holding Big Tech accountable.

You can watch the full interview here.

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