Sponsors (2)
Official title: Establish protections for minors who use companion artificial intelligence chatbots, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 28, 2026 by Jon Husted · Last progress July 28, 2026
The bill substantially increases protections, transparency, and oversight for minors interacting with companion chatbots—trading off broader safety and parental control for higher compliance costs, some loss of confidential access for youth, privacy‑implementation risks, and regulatory uncertainty that may shrink innovation and strain smaller providers.
Children and teens will face substantially lower risks from companion chatbots because the bill requires limits on self‑harm/violent content, bans sexual/romantic interactions with minors, prevents chatbots from impersonating licensed professionals, mandates crisis‑referral pathways (e.g., 988), periodic nonhuman disclosures, and other age‑specific safety measures.
Consumers and the public gain stronger oversight and accountability as the FTC (the 'Commission') receives rulemaking/enforcement authority, state attorneys general can sue on behalf of residents, the bill adds clear definitions and tiers for covered systems, and annual/public reporting and published protocols increase transparency for regulators and policymakers.
Minor users get stronger privacy protections: chatbots are barred from targeting ads using conversations or inferred emotions, third‑party transfers of minors' data generally require verifiable parental consent, Tier III training/data documentation must be disclosed, and minors can delete conversation history with confirmation.
Small developers, nonprofits, and some platforms will face substantial new compliance, documentation, monitoring, training, and reporting costs (designing filters, age verification, parental‑consent systems, evidence‑based escalation protocols, deletion tools), which may raise prices, deter entrants, and shrink market competition.
Requiring accounts, age verification, mandatory parental notification, and prompt parental contact when minors express suicidal ideation could deter adolescents from disclosing sensitive problems or seeking help from chatbots, reducing access to confidential support.
Prohibiting chatbots from providing crisis counseling or allowing persistent, personalized memory without licensed supervision may remove or limit an immediately available support channel, disproportionately harming underserved youth who lack timely access to human mental‑health professionals.
Based on analysis of 13 sections of legislative text.
Requires age verification, parental controls, disclosures, crisis‑referral protocols, data limits, and FTC enforcement for companion AI chatbots used by minors.
Requires companies that provide companion AI chatbots to protect children and set limits on how those chatbots interact with minors. It bans sexual or harmful interactions, forces age-verified accounts and parental controls, sets disclosure and periodic reminders, requires crisis-detection and referral protocols, limits targeted advertising to minors, and gives the FTC enforcement authority. Also directs NIST to study effects of higher-risk chatbots, requires annual FTC reporting on compliance and risks, and takes effect 180 days after enactment.