North Carolina lawmakers should pass laws to curb the addictive nature of social media and to study the impact of artificial intelligence chatbots on young people, the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force said Tuesday.

The task force works toward reducing childhood deaths in the state, though it doesn't have the authority to regulate. The legislative recommendations came from the task force's intentional deaths committee, which is trying to reduce suicide and self-harm. The task force approved the recommendations on Tuesday. They now go to lawmakers, who can consider them for possible legislation. 

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Regulation of social media platforms has been tricky in other states, where some laws have been paused or struck down by courts that say they're unconstitutional.

The task force also re-approved existing recommendations that haven't been passed into law, such as:

  • Raising the age to buy tobacco products from 18 years old to 21 years old
    • Setting the age of 21 as the minimum age to purchase products containing intoxicating cannabis
      • Making child car seat regulations stricter.

        Federal law prohibits the sale of tobacco to anyone younger than 18 years old and state lawmakers have previously introduced a bill on car seat regulations, though it hasn't passed. Earlier this year, a bill sought to set an age for purchasing intoxicating cannabis and to set that age at 21, but it hasn't passed.

        On Tuesday, the task force heard about the impact of chatbots and social media algorithms on children's health from a children's advocate who supports more regulation. The task force also heard from the co-chair of its intentional death committee, Whitney Belich, who recounted studies and other social media resources that tied social media to mental health risks. Most of the work presented by Belich was discussed during her committee's October meeting, which prompted the recommendations approved Tuesday.

        Children can see harmful content when scrolling social media without intentionally doing anything to prompt it, said Ava Smithing, advocacy director at Young People's Alliance, a North Carolina-based group that promotes regulation of social media to reduce negative impacts on young people.

        Smithing said that when she was a teenager, she was presented with eating disorder content without searching for it, prompting her to change her eating habits.

        Because she believed the apps were created by trusted adults, she didn't question whether it was appropriate.

        "I assumed that this is what I'm supposed to be seeing," she said.

        The same thing happens with other people, she said, serving them "politically extreme content, suicide content, self-harm."

        To comply with federal regulations, social media companies ban kids younger than 13 from signing up to their platforms. But children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents' consent, and many younger kids have social media accounts. Some social media platforms have worked to address concerns about children's mental health, such as time limits for users younger than 18. 

        Chatbot regulation

        Smithing also recommended guardrails for artificial intelligence-powered chatbots, including a prohibition on the chatbots acting like therapists or calling themselves therapists, unless they are certified as such by a qualified agency.

        Smithing said the chatbots can be highly influential — more influential than humans — and that they never tell the person they're interacting with that they're wrong, leading to co-dependent relationships between the person and the chatbot. Children could otherwise be helped by having access to community resources and humans to talk with, Belich said.

        If given the choice, per surveys, "teens and others would prefer the real person," Belich said. "It's just that person may not be available to them."

        Smithing listed some possible improvements to chatbots, such as requiring the chatbots to provide mental health resources, limit encouragement, and provide neutral advice.

        Earlier this year, Florida parents alleged that chatbots coached their child into taking his own life.

        As far as social media goes, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed a bill this summer requiring schools to ban cell phones during class and to teach lessons on social media literacy. For the 2026-27 school year, school boards across the state must create social media literacy lessons that teach students about social media addiction, misinformation and manipulation.