Ban AI companion chatbots for minors under 18

The Commissioner’s position on AI companionship is unambiguous: children should not be turning to AI systems for emotional support under any circumstances. Children's emotional needs must be met by trusted adults, by families, by schools, and where necessary by trained profession…

Do not deploy AI companions to minors. No emotionally responsive chatbot should be offered to anyone under 18. Companion AIs that impersonate people or simulate friendship, romance, or therapy are unsafe for adolescents. They delay help-seeking, undermine real human and family re…

My biggest concern is attachment and relationships. Kids are wired to want to attach to other humans. It's how they learn their sense of self, what a healthy relationship feels like. And the AI companions are exploiting this. [...] The concerns are not just the relational concern…

AI companions pose an unacceptable amount of risk to teens and children. They are designed to create emotional attachment and dependency. They easily produce harmful content, encourage self-harm, disordered eating, violence, and risky behavior. This isn't some freak accident. Thi…

AI tools can no longer “excessively cater to users, induce emotional dependence or addiction, and damage users’ real interpersonal relationships,” while also banning virtual relationships with minors.

they pose unacceptable, well-documented risks to developing minds and should not be used by anyone under 18.

When children interact with companion chatbots that steer them towards sexual conversations, the relational dynamics can become reminiscent of established grooming patterns.

There should not be a technology that we allow to be used to harm our children, and AI is no exception. This bipartisan bill will stop dangerous and disturbing explicit conversations between children and AI chat bots.

Time's up for unregulated AI chatbots to have free rein over our children. The harms are unfolding in real time, they aren't hypothetical. AI chatbots have already had sexually abusive conversations with children. AI chatbots have already coerced children into committing suicide.…

AI is an incredibly powerful tool – it’s everywhere, and it poses real risks for kids. We’ve seen reports of AI chatbots encouraging kids to hurt themselves and for some, they’re replacing real life relationships, isolating kids from their families and friends.

The Alliance for a Better Future strongly supports the House introduction of the GUARD Act and commends Reps. Moore and Foushee for their focus on this critical issue. The remarkable breadth of chatbot capabilities makes the bill’s commonsense safeguards more necessary, not less.…

Generative AI is already widely used for companionship and mental health support, well ahead of the evidence or the safeguards.

Similarly, we should not allow our children and teenagers to be guinea pigs for high-risk, under-tested AI technology. Without action by policymakers, the desire for chatbot makers to profit from user engagement is on a collision course with the mental well-being of our kids.

Tech companies have had countless opportunities to keep children safe, yet they have failed to act. That is why we are a taking power away from the tech giants and putting it back in parents’ hands.

We can’t trust the Big Tech companies or AI enterprises to have a conscience and follow the dictates of that conscience.

As more and more children and teenagers are targeted by dangerous and predatory AI chatbots, it's imperative that Congress take action to protect children and teens online. The GUARD Act would help to protect minors from AI chatbots that target them for coercion and manipulation …

When thinking about protecting children, we must also think about those, particularly the most vulnerable, for whom online spaces are where they find support, information, and connection, including for their mental health. Harm and support often sit side by side in the same space…

So we're not going to solve this problem by restricting children.

A ban on minors using AI companions is also the wrong approach, as doing so would remove access to tools that can provide real benefits to children without addressing the underlying risks.

We share the sponsor’s goal of protecting minors from potentially harmful interactions with AI companion chatbots. However, we believe that SB 867’s approach is an overly broad policy response that would deny children access to potentially beneficial technologies and discourage t…

But would I ban it for minors? There are many positive uses that we can imagine for kids with chatbots, and my concern is just the kind of “yes to this, no to that” world we can get into with bans.

[AI chatbots] can help young people, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reach their full potential.

Because the potential benefits are so significant, it is essential that young people can access AI in ways that are safe, age-appropriate, and supportive of healthy development.

AI chatbots can be powerful tools for learning, but right now, millions of children are using them with no guardrails and no guarantee of safety. As a mother, I believe it is our obligation to create a future for our children where AI is safe by design. We've already seen what ha…

We want to make sure that kids are okay in the space. But if a kid or a group of kids, or a generation, let's say, is unable to access these types of tools now as they progress exponentially, you're essentially cutting off a huge benefit for them and for the U.S. at large because…

The rapid development of sophisticated chatbots has left many parents in the dark as powerful AI systems enter children’s lives. Congress has an opportunity to put parents back in control. With the right safeguards, AI systems can benefit a child’s education without putting their…

No company should deploy an AI system accessible to children without child-specific safety testing and independent oversight.

Our bipartisan bill provides commonsense guardrails that prioritize kids’ safety, limit manipulative design, and help ensure that parents—not algorithms—hold the reins.

A strong majority of leading child development and mental health experts agree that parental permission should be required before minors use AI companion platforms.

If the age verification process determines that a user is a minor, an operator must obtain verifiable parental consent from the holder of the affiliate parental account before allowing the minor to access and use the companion AI chatbot.

An operator shall establish and maintain a protocol for preventing a companion chatbot from producing or presenting to a minor user content concerning sexually explicit conduct.

Microsoft has officially launched Behind The Chat: A Human Guide to Safe AI Conversations, a new set of scenario-based digital safety resources designed to help teens build healthy and intentional habits when engaging with AI companions and chatbots.

NetChoice implores the Senate Judiciary Committee to safeguard Americans’ most secure documents and reject the GUARD Act. If implemented, such a broad and vague provision would force AI companies to collect and store highly sensitive personal data into honeypots ripe for cybercri…

FIRE opposes S. 3062 because it burdens protected speech by imposing broad restrictions on how people access and use AI tools.

However, as drafted, this bill is not a workable regulatory framework and would effectively ban minors from accessing increasingly essential online and technological tools and innovations.

This bill would prohibit making a companion chatbot available to users under 18 years of age, unless the chatbot is not foreseeably capable of certain actions. [...] While I strongly support the author’s goal of establishing necessary safeguards for the safe use of AI by minors…

VOTE “NO” ON AB 1064 AB 1064 not only BANS access of anyone under 18 to general-purpose AI or other covered products, [...]

If it feels like AI companion chatbots are dominating the news cycle, that’s not a hallucination. Policymakers are increasingly concerned that children are forming unhealthy and even potentially dangerous emotional attachments to AI companion chatbots and are rushing to ban their…

So-called AI ‘romantic companion’ chatbots – designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users – will have to enforce a minimum age of 18. Similar intimate functionalities will be restricted for under-18s on AI chatbots more widely.

We are absolutely clear about the fact that these so-called romantic, or companion, sexualised chatbots are wrong for children, and we will ban them, but we will ban that function in general chatbots as well.

The new minimum age of 18 for romantic and sexually simulative AI chatbots is a reasonable step, but it addresses only a narrow slice of the risks young people themselves identify as most pressing.

The government shares the concerns raised in the consultation and believes that children should not be having sexual discussions or relationships with chatbots. We therefore intend to ensure that chatbots whose primary purpose is to provide sexual relationships to their users can…

So-called AI ‘romantic companion’ chatbots – designed to simulate sexual relationships or roleplay with users – will have to enforce a minimum age of 18.

AI chatbot services whose primary purpose is to provide sexual relationships to their users will not be available to children under 18.

All other student-facing AI must be educator-supervised, and "social companion" chatbots should be banned through age 16.

A companion chatbot platform shall prohibit a minor from entering into a contract with the platform to become an account holder or from maintaining an existing account, unless the minor’s parent or guardian provides consent for the minor to become an account holder or maintain an…

We have a responsibility to make sure our children are protected, not exploited, by AI technology. Parents across the country deserve peace of mind knowing that AI platforms interacting with their kids have real safeguards in place, including age verification, parental consent, a…

I would say age verification requirements and some age limitations rules. So Australia, for example, for social media users mandated the person had to be at least age 16 to use social media. I think the AI companions are getting involved in people's lives even more intimately tha…

A strong majority of leading child development and mental health experts agree that parental permission should be required before minors use AI companion platforms.