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The John Batchelor Show

53: Regulating AI and Protecting Children. Kevin Frazier (Law School Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin) addresses the growing concern over AI chatbots following tragedies, noting that while only 1.9% of ChatGPT conversations relate to "relationships

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Regulating AI and Protecting Children. Kevin Frazier (Law School Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin) addresses the growing concern over AI chatbots following tragedies, noting that while only 1.9% of ChatGPT conversations relate to "relationships," this fraction still warrants significant attention. He criticizes early state legislative responses, such as Illinois banning AI therapy tools, arguing that such actions risk denying mental health support to children who cannot access human therapists. Frazier advocates against imposing restrictive statutory law on the rapidly evolving technology. Instead, he recommends implementing a voluntary, standardized rating system, similar to the MPA film rating system. This framework would provide consumers with digestible information via labels—like "child safe" or "mental health appropriate"—to make informed decisions and incentivize industry stakeholders to develop safer applications.
1919

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is CBS Eye on the World.

0:08.5

Here's John Batchelor.

0:11.8

This is CBSI on the world.

0:14.1

I'm John Batchel.

0:15.1

I welcome Kevin Frazier, writing for Civitas Outlook at the Civitas Institute,

0:19.7

University of Texas at Austin. Kevin is a

0:22.7

fellow at the law school writing most recently about tragedy and AI and what is to be done.

0:29.9

The headline from NPR in these last months, their teenage sons died by suicide. Mr. Matthew Rain and Ms. Megan Garcia.

0:41.0

Now they are sounding an alarm about Al AI chatbots.

0:45.6

Kevin, a very good evening to you.

0:47.8

The tragedy is obvious.

0:50.1

The details are unnecessary if the parents believe it.

0:53.5

So do I. And the hearings directly speak to

0:57.7

what can government do, certainly to be sympathetic. But these instances are violence and death.

1:06.3

There are many stories that are short of death that are equally disturbing because AI in the hands of children can be dangerous.

1:16.2

Is this a spreading phenomena or early days phenomena? Can you measure it, Kevin? Good evening, too.

1:22.2

Good evening, John. Always a pleasure to be speaking with you, even when we have to dive into some of these incredibly difficult topics. And like you, I agree that this is an instance that deserves significant

1:33.3

public attention and outcry about how some of these AI tools are being developed and used.

1:38.6

But, John, this is very much early days with respect to the use of this novel AI technology, both with respect to

1:46.5

helping consumers, including young consumers, learn how to use these tools, and by way of the

1:53.0

AI companies themselves, learning how to develop safer tools and to market safer tools.

1:58.3

So if we look right now to OpenAI's user survey and get a sense of

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