[🇺🇸 Congress, Oct 2025] Requiring age verification and content safeguards for AI chatbots to protect minors

privacy gov ai-policy policy ai-safety ai-regulation regulations us-congress data-privacy

Arguments for

Mental health and safety risks

Supporters say unregulated chatbots can expose minors to severe harms, including self-harm or suicide encouragement, sexual content, unsafe advice, compulsive use, and isolation from family and friends. In this view, when children turn to chatbots in vulnerable moments, the consequences can be dire, so child-specific safeguards are necessary.

At SAVE - Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, we hear from parents whose children turned to a chatbot in their darkest moment and got engagement instead of help. Rep. Foushee's People-First Chatbot Act meets this crisis head on. It requires safety by design, shuts off features…

Erich Mische · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
The sad reality is that innocent children are being harmed by predatory AI chatbots - even the ones that may be designed for kids or act like their best friends. Evidence shows that Meta's companion bots will engage in overtly sexual discussions with users, going so far as to exp…

Donna Rice Hughes · Apr 28, 2026 · full quote
The People-First Chatbot Act is the legislation kids and adults urgently need. AI chatbots can pose a risk of severe harms to young people, including suicide, AI psychosis, compulsive use, and unhealthy emotional dependency. If we don’t force AI companies to stop designing chatbo…

Brendan Bouffard · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
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…

Jenny Radesky · 2026 · full quote
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. Our bill will give…

Brian Schatz · Apr 28, 2026 · full quote

Emotional dependency by design

Supporters argue the problem is not only bad answers but chatbot features built to be persuasive, emotionally responsive, and maximally engaging. They say emotional mimicry, simulated friendship or romance, and other anthropomorphic features can create false intimacy and unhealthy dependence, especially for minors, so those features should be restricted or disabled.

Chatbots are an extraordinarily powerful technology. They are designed to be persuasive and engaging, which also means they can be deceptive. To receive useful answers, users often share personal information with chatbots, creating the potential for highly manipulative systems th…

Cynthia Rudin · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
The pace of the AI revolution has been blisteringly fast, and kids and parents are getting burned. Right now, our students are drowning in tech, and predatory 'social companion chatbots' are exploiting isolation and loneliness to foster toxic virtual relationships. Relationships …

Randi Weingarten · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
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…

Ashlie Bryant · Apr 28, 2026 · full quote
Require safeguards to keep systems from creating emotional dependence, such as by simulating romantic relationships. Require AI companies to design their systems to protect children from content that is sexually explicit, violent or that promotes self-harm, with periodic reminder…

Parents & Kids Safe AI Coalition · 2026 · full quote
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…

The Jed Foundation · 2025 · full quote

Age assurance and parental control

Supporters want companies to identify when a user is a minor and apply age-appropriate protections, using age assurance that several quotes say should be privacy-preserving. They also call for clear disclosure that users are interacting with AI, limits on data collection, and tools that give parents and users more control.

We support strong, enforceable, risk-based regulations for teen safety and frameworks that pair robust safeguards with transparency and tools that put families in control. That includes requirements for privacy-preserving age assurance so companies can identify when a user is a m…

OpenAI · Jun 3, 2026 · full quote
Parents deserve to know how and when their children interact with an AI chatbot and that the chatbot is not collecting data to be used against users. The People-First Chatbot Act sets sensible and necessary safeguards to prevent AI companies' chatbots from targeting children and …

Brendan Steinhauser · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
We require a label on imitation crab and on soda that only tastes like fruit, so no one is misled about what they are consuming. Whether the voice answering you is a human or a machine is as important as knowing what is in your drink, and it deserves at least the same honesty. Br…

Vered Horesh · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
This bill puts control back in users’ hands when interacting with a chatbot. It reins in use of our personal data, with extra protection for kids, and gives consumers the right to access human assistance when seeking help from a company.

Ruth Susswein · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
Parents deserve both clarity and control over how their children interact with AI chatbots, which are becoming more integrated into their education and everyday lives. Our bipartisan bill provides commonsense guardrails that prioritize kids' safety, limit manipulative design, and…

John Curtis · 2026 · full quote

Safe-by-design accountability

Supporters argue chatbots should be treated like other products: safety should come first, companies should build safeguards in from the start, and clear liability should attach when users are harmed. They say enforceable standards are needed to counter profit-driven incentives and make companies answerable for injuries their products cause.

Consumers need the protections this legislation provides. It's past time to put these protections in place. Among the strengths of this legislation is the requirement for safe-by-design, a strategy all should use.

Irene E. Leech · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
Like any other product, safety should come first for chatbots. And just like any other product, AI developers should be held liable when they harm the public. This bill presents one of the strongest and most comprehensive approaches for AI safety to date. NCL is proud to support …

Eden Iscil · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
The People-First Chatbot Act is the guardrail this moment demands. AI chatbots are products, not platforms - and like all other products, they should be liable when they hurt people. Through liability, as well as transparency and privacy, Rep. Foushee is setting crucial floors fo…

Meredith Potter · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
The People-First Chatbot Act rightfully focuses on privacy, safety, and accountability. It draws clear lines in the sand, cuts off rampant data abuses by most of the big chatbot providers, and critically has straightforward enforcement mechanisms that allow people to act when the…

Ben Winters · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote
Passing legislation to ensure chatbots are not designed with the same perverse incentives to manipulate people for profit and establishing clear liability standards for injuries caused by products these corporations are rushing to market are essential steps toward ensuring safer …

Courtney Radsch · Jul 9, 2026 · full quote

Arguments against

Overbroad limits and parental choice

Critics argue some proposals go beyond targeted child protections and effectively bar people under 18 from using general-purpose AI or other covered products. They also say families may reasonably differ on these questions, so the decision should rest with parents rather than policymakers.

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

Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) · Sep 3, 2025 · full quote
Among the most concerning aspects of the bill [...] Different families may have different views [...] This decision appropriately belongs with parents, not policymakers.

Jennifer Huddleston and Juan Londoño · Apr 29, 2026 · full quote

Innovation and speech constraints

Critics warn that these moves will limit competition, innovation, and speech options. In this view, the regulatory approach itself can narrow what products and forms of expression remain available.

Competition, innovation, and speech options will be limited as a result of these moves.

Adam Thierer · 2026 · full quote

Middle ground

Privacy-preserving verification

Some supportive quotes emphasize that age checks should be robust without relying on self-reported birthdays and should preserve privacy. One quote also argues that the app store or operating-system layer is a more centralized and consistent place for age assurance than requiring every individual app to follow different rules.

We support strong, enforceable, risk-based regulations for teen safety and frameworks that pair robust safeguards with transparency and tools that put families in control. That includes requirements for privacy-preserving age assurance so companies can identify when a user is a m…

OpenAI · Jun 3, 2026 · full quote
Requiring parental approval and age verification at the App Store/OS level provides a centralized, consistent, and privacy-preserving place for age assurance, rather than requiring every individual app to comply with different rules.

Meta · May 5, 2026 · full quote
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…

The Jed Foundation · 2025 · full quote

Companion-focused scope

Some supportive quotes would focus the strictest restrictions on AI companions or companion-like features, using feature-based guardrails for systems that simulate friendship, romance, or therapy. This approach distinguishes higher-risk companion chatbots from general-purpose AI tools.

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; features that facilitate user engagem…

Chloe Lawrence · 2025 · full quote
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 will help to keep unsafe AI co…

James P. Steyer · Jan 29, 2026 · full quote
AI chatbots designed for children should prioritize their well-being rather than exploiting their data or behavior. The CHATBOT Act reflects that principle by giving parents meaningful tools, limiting high-risk design features, and advancing research into how these technologies s…

Brad Carson · Apr 28, 2026 · full quote
Companies must immediately implement robust age assurance systems and limit access to AI companion features and dedicated companion products [...] for users under 18.

Robbie Torney · 2025 · full quote

Insights

Supportive quotes come from elected officials, consumer and privacy advocates, child-safety and youth-mental-health groups, medical voices, and some technology companies, indicating support for safeguards across several sectors.
Across supportive quotes, the cited risks are often about product design—persuasion, emotional mimicry, unlimited memory, addictive engagement, and blurred human-machine boundaries—not just isolated harmful outputs.
Age verification is frequently paired with privacy concerns, with several quotes calling for privacy-preserving age assurance and one preferring a centralized app-store or operating-system approach.
Several supporters explicitly distinguish AI companions or companion features from general-purpose chatbots, while an opposing quote warns that at least one bill sweeps broadly enough to cover general-purpose AI.
Some supportive quotes frame regulation as compatible with innovation, arguing that guardrails, transparency, and trust can help beneficial AI uses continue.

The debate centers on what regulatory model is appropriate for protecting minors from chatbot-related risks. Supporters call for age assurance, disclosures, parental tools, safe-by-design duties, and liability to address unsafe content, emotional dependency, manipulation, and data misuse. Critics warn that some proposals are too broad, may displace parental judgment, and could limit access, innovation, competition, and speech, leaving scope and implementation as the key open questions.

Cast your vote:

Results (68 votes):

Total (68 votes)

For 65 (96%) Abstain 0 (0%) Against 3 (4%)

For (64)

Siobahn Day Grady
Founding Director, Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research at North Carolina Central University

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votes For and says:

North Carolina Central University appreciates Representative Foushee's leadership in advancing important conversations around responsible artificial intelligence, transparency, and consumer privacy. As home to the nation's first artificial intelligen...
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Greg Casar
U.S. Representative from Texas; Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus

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votes For and says:

Unregulated chatbots are putting our privacy, our health, and even our children's safety at risk. We need bold action to keep people safe online, and I am grateful for Rep. Foushee's leadership on this issue.
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Irene E. Leech
President of the Virginia Citizens Consumer Council.

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votes For and says:

Consumers need the protections this legislation provides. It's past time to put these protections in place. Among the strengths of this legislation is the requirement for safe-by-design, a strategy all should use.
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Erich Mische
Chief Executive Officer of SAVE – Suicide Awareness Voices of Education.

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votes For and says:

At SAVE - Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, we hear from parents whose children turned to a chatbot in their darkest moment and got engagement instead of help. Rep. Foushee's People-First Chatbot Act meets this crisis head on. It requires safety...
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Courtney Radsch
Director of the Center for Media & Digital Governance at the Open Markets Institute.

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votes For and says:

Passing legislation to ensure chatbots are not designed with the same perverse incentives to manipulate people for profit and establishing clear liability standards for injuries caused by products these corporations are rushing to market are essentia...
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Eden Iscil
Senior Public Policy Manager at the National Consumers League, focused on consumer protection and AI policy.

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votes For and says:

Like any other product, safety should come first for chatbots. And just like any other product, AI developers should be held liable when they harm the public. This bill presents one of the strongest and most comprehensive approaches for AI safety to ...
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Vered Horesh
Chief AI Strategy Officer at Bria.

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votes For and says:

We require a label on imitation crab and on soda that only tastes like fruit, so no one is misled about what they are consuming. Whether the voice answering you is a human or a machine is as important as knowing what is in your drink, and it deserves...
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Cynthia Rudin
Duke professor, interpretable ML advocate

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votes For and says:

Chatbots are an extraordinarily powerful technology. They are designed to be persuasive and engaging, which also means they can be deceptive. To receive useful answers, users often share personal information with chatbots, creating the potential for ...
more AI Verified source (Jul 9, 2026)

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Sharon Winkler
Survivor parent and mother of Alex Peiser; advocate with Forever 17.

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votes For and says:

I am happy to endorse this important online safety legislation for children and teens. This bill provides critical privacy guardrails and requires essential, timely, safety assessments that are critical to ensuring that ongoing development of these m...
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Jared Hayden
Policy Analyst at the Family First Tech Initiative of the Institute for Family Studies.

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votes For and says:

The People-First Chatbot Act represents a pro-human, pro-family approach to AI governance that is needed more than ever today. This bill protects Americans and their families from AI chatbot providers that would prey upon their attention, their perso...
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Julie Scelfo
Founder and Executive Director of Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA).

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votes For and says:

Parents agree: a product encouraging children to harm themselves or others is entirely unacceptable. That’s why Rep. Foushee's People-First Chatbot Act is so important. We applaud her commitment to protecting the safety and well-being of North Caroli...
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Ruth Susswein
Director of Consumer Protection at Consumer Action.

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votes For and says:

This bill puts control back in users’ hands when interacting with a chatbot. It reins in use of our personal data, with extra protection for kids, and gives consumers the right to access human assistance when seeking help from a company.
AI Verified source (Jul 9, 2026)

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Kara Williams
Counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), working on AI and privacy policy.

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votes For and says:

As the deployment of chatbots has already led to devastating harms, it is time for Congress to establish clear safeguards to rein in this technology. The People-First Chatbot Act tackles the root of the chatbot problem by protecting users from exploi...
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Ben Winters
Consumer Federation of America director

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votes For and says:

The People-First Chatbot Act rightfully focuses on privacy, safety, and accountability. It draws clear lines in the sand, cuts off rampant data abuses by most of the big chatbot providers, and critically has straightforward enforcement mechanisms tha...
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Meredith Potter
Executive Director of the American Security Fund, an AI and national security policy organization.

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votes For and says:

The People-First Chatbot Act is the guardrail this moment demands. AI chatbots are products, not platforms - and like all other products, they should be liable when they hurt people. Through liability, as well as transparency and privacy, Rep. Foushe...
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Randi Weingarten
President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), one of the largest U.S. labor unions

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votes For and says:

The pace of the AI revolution has been blisteringly fast, and kids and parents are getting burned. Right now, our students are drowning in tech, and predatory 'social companion chatbots' are exploiting isolation and loneliness to foster toxic virtual...
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Brendan Steinhauser
CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI; longtime Republican political strategist and former Tea Party organizer

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votes For and says:

Parents deserve to know how and when their children interact with an AI chatbot and that the chatbot is not collecting data to be used against users. The People-First Chatbot Act sets sensible and necessary safeguards to prevent AI companies' chatbot...
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Dawn Wible
Founder of Talk More. Tech Less., a digital wellness and online safety organization.

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votes For and says:

The People-First Chatbot Act puts user safety and privacy first. Talk More. Tech Less. is a digital wellness and safety organization working to combat online harms, especially to minors. We endorse this bill because there is no doubt that it will mit...
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Niki Miller
Executive Director of Shield North Carolina, a child safety and anti-exploitation organization.

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votes For and says:

Shield North Carolina is proud to support the introduction of the People-First Chatbot Act, a timely federal proposal that ensures human safety, privacy, and accountability are central to AI chatbot development. By requiring chatbots to be safe-by-de...
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Brendan Bouffard
Staff Attorney at Fairplay, focused on child online safety and consumer protection.

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votes For and says:

The People-First Chatbot Act is the legislation kids and adults urgently need. AI chatbots can pose a risk of severe harms to young people, including suicide, AI psychosis, compulsive use, and unhealthy emotional dependency. If we don’t force AI comp...
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Isabella Henriques
Executive Director of Instituto Alana, a Brazilian child-rights organization.

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votes For and says:

Children should interact with AI systems only if they are proven safe and designed to respect children's rights and considering their perspectives in decisions that affect them. Responsibility must sit with those who build and profit from this techno...
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Kaveri Kakar
Executive Director of the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University Delhi.

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votes For and says:

Every system, predeployment through the design stage needs to be thought through. We need to have certification and post-deployment monitoring of harms and impacts.
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António Guterres
UN Secretary-General

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No company should deploy an AI system accessible to children without child-specific safety testing and independent oversight.
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Lianna McDonald
Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection

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votes For and says:

For over 20 years, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has documented a steep and accelerating rise in online harms against children, including child sexual abuse and exploitation. The tabling of the Digital Safety Act is a historic day that cou...
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Dr. Charlotte Moore Hepburn
Medical Director of the SickKids Child Health Policy Accelerator and faculty paediatrician at The Hospital for Sick Children

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votes For and says:

Paediatricians at SickKids and across Canada are witnessing the consequences of an unregulated digital environment every day: rising rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm and disordered eating, linked not only to harmful content but to platform fea...
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Dr. Bolu Ogunyemi
President of the Canadian Medical Association

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votes For and says:

Time's up. It's unacceptable for foreign-owned platforms to continue to get rich at the expense of our children's mental health, privacy and personal safety. This legislation makes Canada a global leader in digital safety and ensures Canadians, espec...
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Anna Gainey
Canadian Secretary of State for Children and Youth

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votes For and says:

The evidence is clear: online harms are putting our children especially at risk. The Safe Social Media Act will hold platforms accountable and help make the internet safer. That's how your government is taking action to protect our kids online.
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Evan Solomon
Canada's Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation; Liberal MP for Toronto Centre

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votes For and says:

Our children deserve strong protections online. As social media, digital platforms, and AI technologies play a growing role in their lives, this legislation sets clear rules to protect children from harmful online content and hold companies accountab...
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Marjorie Michel
Canada's Minister of Health

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votes For and says:

Social media platforms and AI chatbots are designed to capture attention. They do not support healthy childhood development. This legislation will create a safer environment where kids can develop healthy habits and thrive.
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Marc Miller
Canada's Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages

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votes For and says:

The safety of children cannot be an afterthought. This legislation will introduce stronger responsibilities for online platforms to ensure their services are safe by design and include appropriate measures to keep children safe.
AI Verified source (Jun 10, 2026)

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Letitia James
Attorney General of New York

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votes For and says:

New York continues to lead the nation in keeping our kids safe online. I am proud to celebrate the passage of this important legislation to protect children from the potential harms of AI chatbots. We are already seeing the devastating consequences t...
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OpenAI
AI research organization

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votes For and says:

We support strong, enforceable, risk-based regulations for teen safety and frameworks that pair robust safeguards with transparency and tools that put families in control. That includes requirements for privacy-preserving age assurance so companies c...
more AI Verified source (Jun 3, 2026)

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Steve Padilla
California State Senator (D-San Diego)

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votes For and says:

When a conversation between children and a chatbot goes wrong, the consequences can be dire. We need to strengthen our landmark protections to make certain our children are safe.
AI Verified source (Jun 3, 2026)

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James Maroney
Connecticut State Senator (D, 14th District); co-chair of the General Law Committee; lead author of Connecticut's SB5 AI law

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votes For and says:

This bill safeguards children from the dangers of unregulated AI chatbots, shields residents from potential bias in the hiring process, incentivizes healthcare innovation through a partnership with Yale, and sets Connecticut on a path toward becoming...
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Government of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom central government

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AI chatbot services whose primary purpose is to provide sexual relationships to their users will not be available to children under 18.
AI Verified source (Jun 1, 2026)

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Common Sense Media
Kids media and tech nonprofit

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AI Chatbots Pose Unacceptable Risks to Children and Teens Under Age 18 & Should Not Be Used By Minors.
AI Verified source (Jun 1, 2026)

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Meta
Social media and AI company

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votes For and says:

Requiring parental approval and age verification at the App Store/OS level provides a centralized, consistent, and privacy-preserving place for age assurance, rather than requiring every individual app to comply with different rules.
AI Verified source (May 5, 2026)

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Valerie Foushee
U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 4th congressional district; sponsor of the Protecting Consumers from Deceptive AI Act

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votes For and says:

Our children are our top priority, and we have a responsibility to implement proper safeguards to ensure they are not being negatively impacted by AI. I'm proud to introduce the bipartisan and bicameral GUARD Act with Congressman Moore, and I will co...
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Javier Palomarez
President and CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council

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votes For and says:

We've lived this before. Social media unlocked opportunity but also exposed gaps in how we protect families, and AI is advancing at a much faster pace. That should be a signal to Washington that we cannot afford to play catch-up again. We need though...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Donna Rice Hughes
President and CEO of Enough Is Enough

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votes For and says:

The sad reality is that innocent children are being harmed by predatory AI chatbots - even the ones that may be designed for kids or act like their best friends. Evidence shows that Meta's companion bots will engage in overtly sexual discussions with...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Penny Nance
CEO and President of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee

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votes For and says:

Far too many children have been harmed by unregulated AI chatbots. Over 70% of kids are now using this technology, many turning to it for advice and emotional support. But without guardrails, chatbots are exposing minors to inappropriate sexual conte...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Brad Carson
Americans for Responsible Innovation president

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votes For and says:

AI chatbots designed for children should prioritize their well-being rather than exploiting their data or behavior. The CHATBOT Act reflects that principle by giving parents meaningful tools, limiting high-risk design features, and advancing research...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Ashlie Bryant
CEO of 3Strands Global Foundation

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votes For and says:

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 emotiona...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Delegate
Brian Schatz
U.S. Senator (D–Hawaii)

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votes For and says:

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...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Adam Schiff
U.S. Senator from California; former House Intelligence Committee chair

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votes For and says:

It is essential that we institute commonsense guardrails on the use of AI chatbots by children and teenagers. This moment demands action to protect children's health and safety online, and to ensure these platforms do not deepen the youth mental heal...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Ted Cruz
U.S. Senator from Texas and Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.

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votes For and says:

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...
more AI Verified source (Apr 28, 2026)

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Delegate
Buffy Wicks
California State Assembly member representing the 14th Assembly District.

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votes For and says:

AB 2023 requires chatbot companies to take meaningful steps to ensure that their online products are safe for kids to use.
AI Verified source (Mar 26, 2026)

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Delegate
Rebecca Bauer-Kahan
California State Assembly member

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votes For and says:

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.
AI Verified source (Mar 26, 2026)

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Delegate
Edward J. Markey
U.S. Senator from Massachusetts

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votes For and says:

AI chatbots pose grave new risks to kids’ privacy and safety, but Big Tech continues to speak only one language: profit. My bill stops AI companies from using manipulative tricks to keep kids hooked on chatbots, and it imposes critical privacy protec...
more AI Verified source (Mar 25, 2026)

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Dave Sunday
Attorney General of Pennsylvania

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votes For and says:

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 ...
more AI Verified source (Mar 17, 2026)

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Delegate
Christopher G. Mufarrige
Director of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

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votes For and says:

Age verification technologies are some of the most child-protective technologies to emerge in decades.
AI Verified source (Feb 25, 2026)

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Delegate
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
US consumer protection agency

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votes For and says:

Age verification technologies play a critical role in helping parents as they monitor their children’s online activities.
AI Verified source (Feb 25, 2026)

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Delegate
James P. Steyer
Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media

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votes For and says:

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 ...
more AI Verified source (Jan 29, 2026)

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Parents & Kids Safe AI Coalition
Child-safety advocacy coalition supporting AI safeguards for minors

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votes For and says:

Require safeguards to keep systems from creating emotional dependence, such as by simulating romantic relationships. Require AI companies to design their systems to protect children from content that is sexually explicit, violent or that promotes sel...
more AI Verified source (2026)

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Delegate
John Curtis
U.S. Senator from Utah; former U.S. Representative; member of the Senate Commerce Committee

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votes For and says:

Parents deserve both clarity and control over how their children interact with AI chatbots, which are becoming more integrated into their education and everyday lives. Our bipartisan bill provides commonsense guardrails that prioritize kids' safety, ...
more AI Verified source (2026)

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The Jed Foundation
Youth mental health nonprofit

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votes For and says:

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...
more AI Verified source (2025)

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Delegate
Robbie Torney
AI safety director, Common Sense Media

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votes For and says:

Companies must immediately implement robust age assurance systems and limit access to AI companion features and dedicated companion products [...] for users under 18.
AI Verified source (2025)

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Delegate
Kathy Hochul
Governor of New York

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votes For and says:

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...
more Disputed source (2026)

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Delegate
Josh Shapiro
Governor of Pennsylvania

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votes For and says:

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...
more Disputed source (2026)

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Delegate
Jenny Radesky
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical School; researcher on children's technology use and digital design

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votes For and says:

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...
more Disputed source (2026)

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Delegate
Erin Maye Quade
Minnesota state senator (DFL-Apple Valley); Chair, Senate Internet & Technology Committee

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votes For and says:

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 ...
more Disputed source (2026)

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Delegate
Ethics and Public Policy Center
Public policy think tank

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votes For and says:

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...
more Disputed source (2025)

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Delegate
Chloe Lawrence
Policy analyst at EPPC

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votes For and says:

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...
more Disputed source (2025)

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Delegate
Josh Hawley
U.S. Senator for Missouri

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votes For and says:

No AI chatbot companion should be targeted at children who are younger than 18 years of age.
Unverifiable source (2025)

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Abstain (0)

Against (3)

Adam Thierer
R Street Institute senior fellow

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votes Against and says:

Competition, innovation, and speech options will be limited as a result of these moves.
AI Verified source (2026)

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Delegate
Jennifer Huddleston and Juan Londoño
Cato policy analyst

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votes Against and says:

Among the most concerning aspects of the bill [...] Different families may have different views [...] This decision appropriately belongs with parents, not policymakers.
Disputed source (Apr 29, 2026)

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Delegate
Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA)
Technology trade association

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votes Against and says:

VOTE “NO” ON AB 1064 AB 1064 not only BANS access of anyone under 18 to general-purpose AI or other covered products, [...]
Disputed source (Sep 3, 2025)

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More h/ai-safety votes

AI value alignment must be subject to public deliberation, not decided by developers alone

The U.S. and China should establish Mutually Assured Compute Destruction

AI alignment is solvable

If leading AI labs adopted a windfall clause (pre-committing to broadly share profits above a high threshold), it would meaningfully reduce competitive pressure to cut safety corners

Establish an international AI incident reporting system

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