Cybersecurity expert warns: no rules yet for AI data centers or Snapchat child safety
byTAYLOR FISHMAN | The National News Desk
Fri, July 17, 2026 at 10:13 AM
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HAMBURG, GERMANY – JUNE 07: A “Mistral” supercomputer, installed in 2016, at the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ, or Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum) on June 7, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany. The DKRZ provides HPC (high performance computing) and associated services for climate research institutes in Germany. Its high performance computer and storage systems have been specifically selected with respect to climate and Earth system modeling. With a total of 100,000 processor cores, Mistral has a peak performance of 3.6 PetaFLOPS. With a capacity of 54 PBytes, its parallel file system is currently one of the largest in the world. The DKRZ’s robot-operated tape archive has currently a capacity of 200 petabytes and allows for long-term archiving of climate simulations such as those carried out with respect to reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Photo by Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images)
As the race to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure accelerates across the country, a growing number of states and local communities are raising concerns about the impact of massive data centers on energy, water supplies, and nearby neighborhoods
New York has become the first state to approve a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale AI data centers, a move supporters say will give lawmakers time to study their environmental and community impacts. Critics, however, argue that the pause could cost the state billions of dollars in investment and slow America’s efforts to compete in the global AI race
Speaking with The National News Desk, cybersecurity expert and privacy attorney Leeza Garber said the debate highlights the growing divide between federal efforts to rapidly expand AI infrastructure and state officials seeking additional oversight
“This is a very complicated issue that’s bringing up heated arguments from both sides,” Garber said. “Right now, there is no federal legislation or standardized state legislation related to how data centers should be put up, the environmental concerns, local community concerns.”
Garber noted that while President Donald Trump has made expanding AI infrastructure a national priority, New York’s moratorium reflects a different approach
“The hope is for people that are looking to set up more guardrails and more safety measures and have more understanding of the impact of AI data centers on this grand scale at the community level to slow down and get the right measures in place,” she said
She added that lawmakers in several states have introduced proposals addressing AI infrastructure, but no uniform framework has emerged
Garber said many Americans hear the term “data center” without fully understanding why the facilities have become central to the development of artificial intelligence
“The way to think about AI data centers and hyperscale data centers is just massive amounts of servers, all running from a centralized location that require exponential resources to continuously run, to continuously process,” she explained.
Those facilities, she said, create a range of competing considerations for communities
“The concerns to think about, there’s certainly environmental, there’s safety, there’s also nuisance concerns,” Garber said, while noting supporters also point to economic benefits and the importance of maintaining U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence
The conversation then turned to online safety, where Garber addressed renewed scrutiny surrounding Snapchat following a series of criminal investigations involving alleged child predators and reports that some young users were recommended adult content
Garber said parents cannot rely solely on technology companies to protect children online
“Snapchat is responsible,” she said. “We’ve seen lawsuits around the country finding pedophiles, finding predators, child sexual abuse material creators all over this platform, and Snapchat has faced legal consequences.”
At the same time, she argued parents remain the first line of defense
“Parents have to be part of this discussion because there is no black-and-white legislation that’s helping,” Garber said. “Big Tech is generally running the show, and Snapchat here is really indicative of a larger problem, which is children’s safety on these apps.”
Garber said Snapchat frequently appears in investigations involving minors because of its popularity with younger users
“Snapchat is popular with the younger crowd,” she said. “Pedophiles, groomers—they know this, and they’re on there lurking.”
She encouraged parents to closely monitor privacy settings, including location sharing, and to discuss online safety with their children before allowing them to use social media platforms
“Parents really have to be aware of the setting possibilities,” Garber said. “Knowing if your location is turned on or off, accepting friend requests from recommended strangers—there are a lot of problems here, so we really have to be super involved in what apps and social media our children are using.”
Garber acknowledged that law enforcement agencies continue to investigate crimes involving social media platforms and said Snapchat does cooperate with authorities. However, she maintained that stronger parental involvement remains essential
“There have been documented cases of Snapchat internal employees noting that they have a severe safety problem, and they do work with law enforcement,” she said. “But understanding that parents still have a huge obligation here because Big Tech is not taking the reins.”
As lawmakers continue debating how to regulate both artificial intelligence infrastructure and online platforms used by children, Garber said the common thread is the absence of comprehensive national standards, leaving many of the biggest decisions to states, companies and families
