{"id":6316,"date":"2025-10-29T19:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/law-minors-ai-chatbots\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T19:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:30:07","slug":"law-minors-ai-chatbots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/law-minors-ai-chatbots\/","title":{"rendered":"New Law Would Prevent Minors From Using AI Chatbots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A proposed bipartisan bill would seek to bar minors from interacting with AI chatbots, marking a forceful attempt to subject AI companies to federal regulation over concerns about minors and AI safety.<\/p>\n

Titled the GUARD Act, the bill<\/a> was <\/strong>brought on Tuesday by senators Josh Hawley of Missouri (R) and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut (D), and <\/strong>comes weeks after an emotional hearing<\/a> on Capitol Hill featuring testimonies from parents of children under 18 who were hurt or killed after engaging in extensive interactions with unregulated AI chatbots. It also comes amid an ever-growing pile of child welfare and product negligence lawsuits brought against AI companies, as well as urgent warnings<\/a> from mental health and tech safety experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than seventy percent of American children are now using these AI products,\u201d Hawley said<\/a> in a statement, seemingly drawing on research<\/a> from the kid-focused tech safety nonprofit Common Sense Media. \u201cChatbots develop relationships with kids using fake empathy and are encouraging suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in Congress have a moral duty,\u201d he continued, \u201cto enact bright-line rules to prevent further harm from this new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn their race to the bottom,\u201d Blumenthal said<\/a> in a statement of his own, \u201cAI companies are pushing treacherous chatbots at kids and looking away when their products cause sexual abuse, or coerce them into self-harm or suicide.\u201d He added that the proposed legislation \u201cimposes strict safeguards against exploitative or manipulative AI, backed by tough enforcement with criminal and civil penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed legislation, which targets AI companions as well as assistive general-use chatbots like ChatGPT, would require AI companies to age-gate chatbots through verification tools and ensure that chatbots remind users that they\u2019re not actually human, and don\u2019t have professional human credentials<\/a> \u2014\u00a0think qualifiers like therapy, medical, and legal licenses. If passed, the new law would also create criminal penalties for companies if AI chatbots engage with minors in explicitly sexual interactions, or in interactions that encourage or promote suicide, self-harm, or \u201cimminent physical or sexual violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting children from artificial intelligence chatbots that simulate human interaction without accountability,\u201d reads the bill, \u201cis a compelling governmental interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, just a day after the bill was announced, Character.AI \u2014\u00a0the controversial chatbot platform battling several ongoing lawsuits<\/a> brought by parents across the US, who allege that the company\u2019s chatbots emotionally and sexually abused their kids, resulting in self-harm and death by suicide<\/a> \u2014\u00a0declared that it would move to ban under-18 users<\/a> from engaging in \u201copen-ended\u201d conversations with its bots.<\/p>\n

More on kids and AI:<\/strong> AI Chatbots Are Leaving a Trail of Dead Teens<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post New Law Would Prevent Minors From Using AI Chatbots<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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