Comment by Ashlie Bryant

At 3Strands Global Foundation, we've spent years scaling evidence-based prevention education that teaches children to recognize manipulation and coercion in the real world. AI chatbots engineered for maximum engagement, unlimited memory, and emotional mimicry introduce those same risks at a scale no child can navigate alone, and no prevention curriculum can address without strong policy and industry partnership supporting it. The CHATBOT Act meets that reality head-on with parental consent, default-on protections, time and memory limits, and rigorous federal study of how these products shape young minds. We applaud Senators Cruz and Schatz for their bipartisan leadership, and we stand ready to work alongside the technology companies building these tools to ensure child safety is engineered in from the start. Together, by pairing prevention education with strong safeguards and genuine industry collaboration, we can build an AI ecosystem worthy of our children's trust.