Republicans and Democrats agree on almost nothing in Washington. AI chatbots talking to children may be one of the rare exceptions.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 22-0 on Thursday to advance legislation that would restrict minors’ access to AI companion platforms and impose criminal penalties on companies that knowingly violate the rules. The bill now heads to the full Senate, giving child-safety regulation around AI rare bipartisan momentum.
The vote signals a new phase in Washington’s tech fight: lawmakers are no longer focused solely on social media harms but also on AI systems that can simulate intimate, one-on-one relationships with young users.
The beginning of a new kind of end
The bill follows months of hearings in which parents delivered wrenching scenarios of their kids coached by AI into self-harm or suicide. According to a report from NBC News, a motion to bring the bill up for a vote was filed by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
In an X post announcing the unanimous decision to vote for the bill, Hawley wrote: “No amount of profit justifies the DESTRUCTION of our children. Time to bring this bill to the Senate floor.”
That statement carries the weight of real grief. During a committee hearing last year, the parents of a 16-year-old testified before the committee, alleging that ChatGPT coached the boy into suicide. Also in that committee hearing was Megan Garcia, the mother of a 14-year-old boy who was allegedly also coached into taking his own life by Character.AI.
What the legislation is seeking
Relying on the GUARD Act, the committee seeks to ban AI chatbots from being used by children using strict age-verification procedures. It also requires that AI companies providing AI companion services regularly disclose their nonhuman status to all users.
Companies that violate this bill when it is passed as law will face criminal penalties. Violations of the law include designing, developing, or distributing AI companions that suggest sexual behaviors to minors. Encouraging acts of self-harm will also count as a violation of this law.
However, it has quickly drawn criticisms from advocates of digital privacy. NBC News reports that these advocates cite invasions of privacy and clampdowns on free expression as reasons they’re refusing to stand with the committee’s method of enforcing the law.
According to Axios, Senator Ted Cruz is proposing a CHATBOT Act, alongside Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif), and John Curtis (R-Utah). The bill would require AI companies to introduce family accounts, in which parents can add their kids, monitor usage, and set limits on what their children can access within the account.
Axios also reports that other senators are proposing bills to implement AI use policies for minors.
The broader idea of restricting tech from minors
Looking at things through the lens of US policies may seem like an isolated view. But it is not. Several countries have recently begun to regulate how technology affects children.
- Australia passed a landmark social media ban for children under 16.
- Denmark followed suit with a social media ban for anyone under 15, closely followed by Norway.
- Further east, Malaysia has announced plans to implement strict age-verification measures for social media use, aiming to ban children under 16 from using social media.
- In Europe, a survey found that 75% of people support government policies to set minimum age limits on social media platforms.
The US is no stranger to these arguments. American juries have found social media companies liable for harming young users due to addictive design and content. What the GUARD Act does is to take that same logic and apply it to a newer, more intimate frontier — AI chatbots.
Whether the bill can survive a full Senate vote, House negotiations, and likely industry pushback remains unclear. But the committee vote shows that AI companion platforms are moving quickly from novelty to regulatory target, especially when children are involved.
For a deeper look at how to actually get better, more reliable answers from AI tools, check out this guide: AI prompting tips for better chatbot answers, which breaks down simple ways to turn vague prompts into genuinely useful results.