I'm John Batchel, speaking to my colleague Kevin Fraser from the University of Texas at Austin Law School, a fellow writing most recently about the worries that legislators have in different states about AI in the hands of children. And that is similar to a concern that

was about 100 years ago, Kevin, when Hollywood suddenly was introducing into family life

unacceptable topics, depending on where you lived in the country and what your background was.

And Hollywood had a solution. What was it, Kevin?

Yeah. So in the 1960s, we saw the Motion Picture Association, or the MPA, as folks might know it

better, develop a rating system. This was the voluntary standardized framework that

inform consumers about the sorts of content they were going

to see in a movie. Today, we know them as PG-13, R, or even NR movies. And based off of that

simple determination, parents, children, adults generally, consumers writ large, can make informed decisions about whether

that's the sort of movie that aligns with their values and preferences.

And by virtue of just creating this voluntary framework, we were able to empower consumers

to make wise choices that really made sure that they were not exposing themselves to something

they didn't want to see, and in particular, something their children did not want to see.

But John, crucially, this was not an instance of the government saying, you cannot make a certain

kind of movie, you cannot show a certain kind of scene, or even mandating very specific criteria on movie

theaters, but instead a voluntary, flexible standard grounded in consumer education.

What is striking to me is that the MPA system came out of a system that was known as the Hayes

office, it was censorship, which is

strikingly similar to what is being entertained by certain states. Censorship never worked

because it was a sales point. You can't see that, tells children immediately they've got to

sneak in and see it. What you're recommending is guidance for the parents and an understanding of what is and is not age appropriate.

I find that a very useful version of what can happen next because it's worked before.

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