Ban AI companion chatbots for minors under 18

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.

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

There’s a stronger case for banning companion-style bots for minors than for banning all chatbots.

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.

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.

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.

[Unlicensed] chatbots are commercial tools that unlike therapy can be designed to foster dependency and keep you coming back for more. They will not always have a user’s best interests at heart.

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

AI bots mimicking children corrupt the user and feed into a pathology that increases the likelihood that real children will be exploited and abused. This is sick and this is wrong.

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.

Children will not be safe as long as these tools exist, which is why I am co-leading the effort to establish strong penalties for anyone who creates or operates these destructive chatbots.

You must be at least 18 years old to use our App.

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 re...

The introduction of unstructured AI companions into minors' lives poses unique psychological and developmental risks.

I think ban on AI companions for minors. And just to clarify, when I'm talking about age gating, I think some legislature allow parents to give consent. I think it's great to give parents tools in addition to an actual age gating, which is mandatory ...

Ban on AI companions for minors, just for protection.

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 ...

The Service is strictly limited to adults. You must be at least 18 years of age, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction (whichever is higher), to access or use the Service.

My priority is always to ensure Nevada families are protected, whether that’s from violent criminals or the dangers of AI.

The Alliance for a Better Future (ABF) strongly supports the House introduction of the GUARD Act and commends Reps. Moore and Foushee for their focus on this critical issue.

I . . . welcome the opportunity to continue to fine-tune that section of this very, very important bill.

AI chatbots put the mental and physical health of young people at risk. I’m encouraged to see this bipartisan legislation advance through committee. It is time to put clear guardrails in place to protect children from manipulative or dangerous chatbo...

The GUARD Act would ban AI companies from providing AI companions that simulate interpersonal relationships or emotional interactions to minors.

We know they could put up those guardrails. They should do it anyway. It is sick that we’re having to sit here to make them do that.

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 ...

We applaud Reps. Moore and Foushee for putting young people first by introducing the GUARD Act. This bill has strong protections to ensure that young people don't grow up in a world where our agency and communities are eroded by AI companions designe...

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 chi...

While our AI development agenda should seek to innovate and break barriers, it must also protect children from addictive and manipulative technology. The GUARD Act is a critical step to draw lines in the sand with Big Tech and ensure that minors are ...

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 a...

To protect children, the legislation would ban companies from providing AI companion chatbots for minors.

Strict restrictions will be imposed, for example, on providers offering virtual relatives, virtual companions or other intimate relationships to minors.

Providers of anthropomorphic interactive services must not provide minors with virtual intimate-relationship services such as virtual relatives or virtual partners.

While AI companions can feel personal and supportive, they really are not designed for children and they are not mental health experts either.

The potential dangers tied to overreliance on artificial intelligence are very real, as we have seen online chatbots play roles in numerous tragedies across the nation. We must do everything we can to keep children and vulnerable residents away from ...

Child protection is a stress test for the development of AI. In the case of social media, it failed.

AI is more and more embedded in our children’s digital environment, in the way they access information, socialize or play, at a time when they are building their identity.

The mass adoption of AI, at an unprecedented speed, is bringing about new dangers. We must protect our children in their digital lives.

It's clear that in the system today, something is rotten. When you look at the situation of our children or teenagers, when you think about social media and if you add to it some AI chatbot, this is the beginning of a terrible situation.

I'm not talking about a pause on AI at all. I'm just talking about a pause on AI girlfriends for 12-year-olds, AI that can teach terrorists to make bioweapons and other products that are clearly more harmful than beneficial for Canadians.

Three in four teens use AI companions, but the research is clear that no one under 18 should use unsafe AI companion chatbots. Through strong, privacy-protective age assurance measures and clear feature-based guardrails on chatbots, this legislation ...

Without the right safeguards, AI can put young people at risk. AI tools are not a substitute for mental health care, but many people are already using them to ask questions or find support. Some tools can help when used responsibly, but others can ca...

The NAACP New York State Conference supports this legislation as a practical, common-sense step toward maximizing the benefits of AI while ensuring accountability, safety, and responsible use.

Companion chatbots are endangering our youth. The longer we wait to regulate these applications, the more kids are left vulnerable to exploitation. We must protect children from the risks associated with these chatbots.

Public Citizen also supports strengthening consumers’ power to hold AI corporations accountable for harms in court, as the bipartisan AI LEAD Act does, as well as the bipartisan GUARD Act, which bans AI corporations from making companion products ava...

Starting in the coming weeks, teens will no longer be able to access AI characters across our apps until the updated experience is ready.

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 ment...

We recommend that "AI Companions" - apps and toys explicitly marketed as friends or companions - should not be used by anyone under 18.

People under the age of 18 should not be able to interact with AI chatbots. These chatbots continue to put the lives and mental health of children at risk, and it is critical for Congress to act immediately.

I don't think anyone under the age of 18 should be in a synthetic relationship.

AI companions are engineered to be as addictive as possible to extract maximum user engagement [...] After a series of tragedies, some of these companies, such as Character.ai, have restricted the use of their AI companions to adults alone. This is t...

Chatbots should be banned for kids under age 18. [...] Under the current administration, government regulation looks like a lost cause. Multi-billionaire bot tycoons have become heavyweight political contributors and have made meaningful legislation ...

• Ensuring generative AI chatbots with human-like features are not made available for use by minors; and

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Katie Britt (R-AL) introduced the GUARD Act, which would ban AI companions for minors, mandate AI chatbots disclose its non-...

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, unde...

There’s a seductive narrative being spun that AI, especially the new wave of generative chatbots listen, understand and heal. This is just word prediction at scale, trained on the best and worst of the internet. It’s certainly not empathy. And for lo...

I am writing to express my strong support for [...] Assembly Bill 1064 (Bauer-Kahan), which would ban AI companions for minors [...].

The term “minor” means any individual who has not attained 18 years of age. [...] shall prohibit the minor from accessing or using any AI companion [...].

minor users will not be allowed to access AI companions [...]

these AI tools pose unacceptable risks to children and teens under age 18 and should not be used by minors.

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

children should not use Nomi or any other conversational AI app. Nomi is an adult-only app, and it is strictly against our terms of service for anyone under 18 to use Nomi. Accordingly, we support stronger age gating so long as those mechanisms fully...

You can’t overstate the harm these AI companion chatbots pose to our kids. Nearly 70 percent of teenagers are turning to chatbots as a substitute for friendship, making them more isolated and disconnected, but what’s even scarier are the stories of c...

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 ver...

The GUARD Act would: 1. Ban AI companies from providing AI companions to minors.

The GUARD Act would: * Ban AI companies from providing AI companions to minors.

I shudder to think of the impact it would have on kids if programmable ‘best friends' were available to the average elementary school child. Put quite simply, AI companions are not safe for anyone under the age of 18. The reality is, kids won't miss ...

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

Hola is strictly for users aged 18 years and above. Anyone under 18 is not permitted to use the Service.

The remarkable breadth of chatbot capabilities makes the bill's commonsense safeguards more necessary, not less. Chatbots can perform as a tutor, confidant, therapist, companion, and even, sadly, suicide coach — simultaneously, around the clock, and ...

This Website is offered and available to Users who are 18 years of age or older.

Scarlett is an adult-only service. By using the Service, you confirm that you are at least 18 years of age (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, whichever is higher).

I welcome a recent bill proposed by Senator Josh Hawley that would ban anyone under 18 from using AI companion apps nationwide.

As New York's first mom governor, the well-being and safety of our children has always been one of my top priorities. [...] These AI programs are designed to keep your kids glued to the screens at all costs. Some target children in the most vulnerabl...

Around the world, people are getting diminished. Less intelligent, less happy, less competent. And it's happening very fast … My argument is that if we continue with current trends as AI is coming in, it's going to accelerate. [...] [Tech companies m...

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 n...

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 ...

AI companions are unsafe for children, and yet they are all too easy to access. Just as we have done for pornography websites, EPPC is putting forth a new model bill that would age restrict AI companions entirely out of childhood. The burden is curre...

EPPC’s model defines which platforms would be covered by the bill, limiting the bill to AI companion chatbots as opposed to general purpose chatbots. Companion chatbots are defined based on their features, including: anthropomorphic features; feature...

Children have given us a clear diagnosis of the problem. They aren't asking us to block AI innovation, but it shouldn't be a case of cleaning up the mess after harm has happened either.

Some kids are just too young to understand the difference between AI and a real person. [...] Remember, this is not a person... this is just something you download in the app store. It's not just our kids — these chatbots and the companies behind the...

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

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

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.

AI chatbots that promote companionship pose significant risks to young and developing minds.

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

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.

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 in...

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 e...

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

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

This technology, while a powerful tool, has been designed to capture young people’s attention and hold it at the expense of their real-world relationships. As the author of California’s nation-leading safeguards, it is vital we build upon them and en...

As a parent of two young girls, I am always thinking about how our digital landscape is impacting California’s children. The digital frontier seems to be evolving almost daily, and companion chatbots have become increasingly mainstream. But our kids ...

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 desi...

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...

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.

The use of AI companions is spreading rapidly among children and teens, yet we know remarkably little about how it may shape emotional development, social expectations, or mental health. This vote reflects a precautionary approach grounded in what we...

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.

We need meaningful safeguards on AI to address the harms they cause. That is why we cannot tell states to stand down from protecting their kids, especially when we need Congress to put standards in place. Over the last decade, Congress has failed to ...

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...

The GUARD Act doesn’t give parents a choice—it simply blocks minors from AI companions altogether.

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 chatbot...

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 fo...

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.

The question with Senate File 1857 is not whether or not kids deserve protection, it’s whether this bill’s approach cuts them off from useful tools.

NetChoice respectfully urges the Committee to oppose SB 5 in its current form. [...] Section 11 prohibits operators from providing AI companions to minors

Among the most concerning aspects of the bill [...] Different families may have different views [...] This decision appropriately belongs with parents, not policymakers.

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...

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