Children's online safety, preemption highlight White House's AI policy recommendations

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration unveiled its proposals and desires for how federal AI regulations should be shaped. According to a policy recommendation issued 20 March, the White House is seeking a framework with heavy emphasis on children's online safety, intellectual property, AI literacy and preemption of state AI laws that would "hinder" U.S. innovation and competition goals.

The recommendations represent one perspective for federal lawmakers to consider among their own emerging policy proposals. The White House was reportedly working in close coordination with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who released her own AI framework days prior with similar policy focuses.

In a press release, the administration explained a national framework for AI is a necessity as "some Americans feel uncertain about how this transformative technology will affect issues they care about." It added that tackling the issues, including children's safety, "requires Federal leadership to ensure the public's trust in how AI is developed and used in their daily lives."

Among the other policy areas covered in the new proposal are AI infrastructure, free speech and censorship. 

The proposals were a deliverable mandated by the White House's executive order on state AI law preemption issued in December 2025. White House Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David Sacks and Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios were charged with spearheading the initiative with the goal to have recommendations be the basis for a "uniform" framework.

While unveiling the recommendations on the social platform X, Sacks said the framework will "help parents safeguard their children from online harm" and "ensure that all Americans benefit from this transformative technology."

Children come first

The White House led off its recommendations with children's protections, which has been the consistent theme dating back to administration's executive order.

Privacy and data security are top of mind, according to the children's proposals. The administration called for affirmation that "existing child privacy protections apply to AI systems, including limits on data collection for model training and targeted advertising." It also pitched "robust tools" for parents and guardians that will help "manage their children's privacy settings, screen time, content exposure, and account controls."

Age verification to ensure age-appropriate use of AI was also specifically mentioned. The White House proposed "commercially reasonable, privacy protective, age assurance requirements (such as parental attestation) for AI platforms," which is an area covered extensively in Blackburn's proposed framework.

The term "likely to be accessed by minors" appears in a few recommendations, which indicates the administration is open to a potential knowledge standard. Lawmakers have been debating the knowledge standard in the proposed Kids Online Safety Act, which is embedded in Blackburn's proposal, and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy protection Act.

Preemption, light enforcement touch

Within the children's recommendations is a specific call for Congress to "ensure that it does not preempt states from enforcing their own generally applicable laws protecting children." Traditional police powers and the governing of public-sector AI procurement and services were other areas the administration sought to avoid preemption.

Beyond those few callouts, the White House spoke in mostly broad terms on its desires to supersede state AI laws. There were no direct mentions of limits on rules applying to areas of recent state legislative focus like automated decision-making technology and AI chatbots.

According to the administration, any preemption standards "must ensure that State laws do not govern areas better suited to the Federal Government or act contrary to the United States' national strategy to achieve global AI dominance." It recommended states be prohibited from regulating AI development altogether and from enforcing against developers for how their product might be unlawfully used by a third party.

The suggestions on preemption correlate with a pitch for a relaxed approach to how any final framework will be enforced.

AI regulatory sandboxes were recommended to "help unleash American ingenuity and further American leadership in AI development and deployment."

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has an existing proposal for a two-year sandbox program that includes exemptions from federal regulations impeding product development.

Additionally, the administration wants to avoid the creation of a standalone AI regulatory body. Instead, it recommended "existing regulatory bodies with subject matter expertise" provide support on sector-specific AI development and deployment while "industry-led standards" also play a role.