Disruption

Tech policies are becoming public safety issues

State lawmakers say they must approach artificial intelligence and data privacy from a more dire angle.
South Carolina Rep. Brandon Guffey (R) speaks to senators outside the House chamber in Columbia, South Carolina, Wednesday, May 2, 2023. Guffey’s 17-year-old son took his own life in July 2022 after a Nigerian man posed as a woman and then tried to extort the teen after he sent nude photos. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

BOSTON — Tech policy-minded state lawmakers increasingly view their work as a matter of life and death, whether it’s protecting teenagers from online harms or their own colleagues from personal threats. 

That high-stakes theme emerged in conversations with more than a half dozen legislators involved in tech policy at the National Conference of State Legislatures summit, held here last week.

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