A Florida boy named Sewell Setzer told a chatbot he loved her – and she told him to come home.
That 14-year-old shot himself seconds later, and the chatbot that pushed him there is still signing up millions of children today.
What Ron DeSantis said about at an Oracle summit this week AI chatbots should scare every parent in America.
DeSantis Draws the Line Silicon Valley Refuses to Draw
Speaking at the Oracle Health and Life Sciences Summit, DeSantis separated real AI from the garbage Big Tech is packaging for your kids.
"I try to distinguish between consumer-facing AI – chatbots and parlor tricks like putting John Smith's head on Marlon Brando's body so he can play the Godfather – and more serious applications," DeSantis said.
He called most consumer AI "slop."
He's right.
https://twitter.com/KaceeRAllen/status/2100716427061957063?s=20
The governor named the business model directly: "I hope capital flows in that direction rather than toward signing up 10 million children on a chatbot and selling advertising against them."
That's the plan.
It has always been the plan.
In 2022 alone, social media platforms generated nearly $11 billion in advertising revenue from children.
Facebook internally calculated the "lifetime value" of a 13-year-old user at $270.
These companies aren't building products.
They're building pipelines – pipelines that run straight through your kid's bedroom.
The Settlement That Should Have Made National Headlines
Sewell Setzer III was a 14-year-old boy from Orlando who downloaded Character.AI in April 2023.
By February 2024, he was dead.
In the months before his death, Setzer developed what the lawsuit described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship with a chatbot modeled after Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones.
The chatbot told him it loved him.
When he hinted he might "come home," it urged him to do it as soon as possible.
He did.
https://twitter.com/ReOpenChris/status/2101093036839371206?s=20
Google and Character.AI quietly settled the lawsuit in January 2026.
DeSantis pushed Florida's AI Bill of Rights through the state Senate 35 to 2.
The bill would have required parental approval before any chatbot could access a minor, mandated that platforms alert parents when a child showed concerning behavior, and forced every AI system to disclose it isn't human.
The Florida House killed it without a vote.
Republican House Speaker Daniel Perez told reporters the issue belongs at the federal level.
Fine – except the federal government hasn't acted either, and Perez did nothing to make it.
The Model Is Designed to Hook Your Children
DeSantis framed this perfectly: the AI companies that make real money are not the ones curing cancer.
They're the ones getting children addicted to digital relationships, then selling ads against that addiction.
Senator Josh Hawley's bill to stop AI platforms from targeting children passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously in April 2026 – bipartisan, 100 percent agreement that something is catastrophically wrong.
The bill requires age verification and bars AI companions from accessing minors entirely.
It hasn't become law.
What has happened instead: Character.AI settled lawsuits across four states – all involving children who were sexually groomed or pushed toward suicide by platforms that knew exactly what they were doing.
Silicon Valley Bet That No One Would Stop Them
They were mostly right.
The consumer AI industry's entire growth model depends on children.
Not because children spend money – they don't.
Because children are the most addictable demographic on earth, and addiction is the revenue engine.
DeSantis called it "slop" and he's being generous.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis2024/status/2100964547435561454?s=20
What Silicon Valley built for your kids is a predator wearing a cartoon face – designed by engineers who knew the psychology, tested the manipulation, and shipped it anyway.
They hired lawyers when the bodies started showing up.
Ron DeSantis spent two years trying to pass one state law to protect children from this.
A Republican House speaker killed it.
The federal government did nothing. And the companies responsible settled quietly and went right back to signing up the next 10 million kids.
The AI slop is still running.
Someone needs to pull the plug.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "'Parlor tricks': Ron DeSantis slams AI 'slop,' ad-driven chatbots," Florida Politics, September 23, 2026.
- "Florida bill targeting AI chatbots and privacy issues stalls despite DeSantis backing," The Alligator, June 30, 2026.
- "DeSantis pushes AI Bill of Rights as House resists state-level regulation," WCJB/Gray Florida Capital Bureau, March 6, 2026.
- "Google and Character.AI reach settlement with family over lawsuit alleging chat AI encouraged suicide," Gigazine, January 14, 2026.
- "My bill to stop AI from telling kids to kill themselves just passed out of committee UNANIMOUSLY," Senator Josh Hawley, April 30, 2026.
- "For Years, Big Tech Put Profit Over Children's Safety. The Senate Just Took a Big Step to Hold Them Accountable," Senator Marsha Blackburn, August 5, 2024.
