Exclusive: Youth-led AI safety group demands protections for young users
Its top goals: Prevent catastrophic risk, allow states to pass their own laws, protect against digital fakes, and focus on design that helps and protects people. Design It For Us, a youth-led group that advocates for guardrails on Big Tech companies, is releasing an ambitious 2027 AI policy platform, shared first with Semafor. Its top goals: Prevent catastrophic risk, allow states to pass their own laws, protect against digital fakes, and focus on design that helps and protects people. The platform is based on feedback from 700+ members across 40 states, co-founder Zamaan Qureshi said. He added that Anthropic’s recently leaked bill falls short and said the group is calling on Congress to pass a bill by the end of 2027, “because it’s our future on the line.” The group says it’s shaped several must-haves by taking lessons from Washington’s failure to regulate social media. Among them: The government should be able to block the deployment of dangerous models; large AI companies should be required to have independent testing and meet minimum standards for capabilities; companies should be liable for their projects injuring people; and states should have leeway to regulate AI. “The deci
Its top goals: Prevent catastrophic risk, allow states to pass their own laws, protect against digital fakes, and focus on design that helps and protects people. Design It For Us, a youth-led group that advocates for guardrails on Big Tech companies, is releasing an ambitious 2027 AI policy platform, shared first with Semafor. Its top goals: Prevent catastrophic risk, allow states to pass their own laws, protect against digital fakes, and focus on design that helps and protects people. The platform is based on feedback from 700+ members across 40 states, co-founder Zamaan Qureshi said.
He added that Anthropic’s recently leaked bill falls short and said the group is calling on Congress to pass a bill by the end of 2027, “because it’s our future on the line.” The group says it’s shaped several must-haves by taking lessons from Washington’s failure to regulate social media. Among them: The government should be able to block the deployment of dangerous models; large AI companies should be required to have independent testing and meet minimum standards for capabilities; companies should be liable for their projects injuring people; and states should have leeway to regulate AI.
“The decisions about AI today will define the world we inherit,” the group’s policy platform states. “We cannot afford to be excluded. Those who build and regulate AI systems must be accountable to the generation that will live with these consequences the longest.” Design It For Us has played an active role in debates on Capitol Hill over kids’ online safety bills, often influencing lawmakers to draft stronger legislation — but one of its key legislative goals, the Kids Online Safety Act, has yet to pass Congress.
However, if Democrats focus on AI safety after winning control of one or both chambers of Congress next month, the group’s work on AI issues leaves it well-positioned.