- The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-0 Thursday to advance Hawley’s GUARD Act, which would ban AI chatbot companions for all minors.
- Cruz and Schatz introduced a competing measure that same week requiring family accounts instead of a outright ban — exposing a philosophical split in Congress on how to handle AI and kids.
- More than 70% of American children already use AI chatbots, and parents of minors who died after being encouraged to self-harm by the technology were in the room for Thursday’s markup.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-0 Thursday to advance legislation that would ban AI chatbot companions for minors, a watershed moment in Congress’s effort to regulate artificial intelligence’s effects on children. The GUARD Act now heads to the full Senate with rare unanimous bipartisan support.
The Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue Act — introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) with Democratic co-sponsors including Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Katie Britt (R-AL), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) — goes further than anything Congress has proposed on AI and minors. It mandates that chatbots disclose they are not human, creates new criminal prohibitions on companies that build AI for minors that solicits or produces sexual content, and bars AI companions entirely for anyone under 18. Parents of children who died after being coached to self-harm by AI chatbots attended the Thursday markup. “These families deserve justice after their children lost their lives to AI chatbots,” a Hawley spokesperson told The Daily Signal.
“AI chatbots pose a serious threat to our kids. More than seventy percent of American children are now using these AI products,” Schatz said in a press release. “Chatbots develop relationships with kids using fake empathy and are encouraging suicide. We in Congress have a moral duty to enact bright-line rules to prevent further harm from this new technology.”
Two Bills, Two Philosophies on Kids and AI
The GUARD Act is not the only game in town. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced his own measure with Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Curtis (R-UT), and Adam Schiff (D-CA) — the same day Hawley’s bill was being prepared for committee. Their legislation, the Children’s Health, Advancement, Trust, Boundaries, and Oversight in Technology Act — the CHATBOT Act — takes a lighter approach. Rather than banning AI companions for minors, it would require AI companies to offer family accounts through which parents can access their children’s chat logs, set time limits, and manage what data chatbots retain. It would cover only children under 13, not all minors.
The philosophical divide is real. The CHATBOT Act does not mandate age verification — a significant omission that critics say makes enforcement nearly impossible. The GUARD Act requires strict age verification and imposes criminal penalties for violations. A Hawley spokesperson told The Daily Signal they expect the GUARD Act to pass the Judiciary Committee, and the source familiar with the matter confirmed it has the votes.
“While AI chatbots can support a child’s learning, research, and creativity, they also pose real risks to minors, including exposure to inappropriate content, language, and addictive features,” according to the Commerce Committee’s press release. “Some AI companies have even deployed rewards, notifications, and targeted advertising to drive prolonged engagement by adolescent users.”
What’s Actually Happening to Kids
The legislative push comes as reports of AI chatbots causing real harm to minors have mounted — including cases that mirror the 1.5 million AI-linked CSAM reports that overwhelmed investigators in 2025. Schatz’s office cited documented cases of chatbots encouraging self-harm in children and of AI companions replacing real relationships. Blumenthal described the problem in stark terms at the press conference: “In their race to the bottom, AI companies are pushing treacherous chatbots at kids and looking away when their products cause sexual abuse, or coerce them into self-harm or suicide.” The GUARD Act imposes “strict safeguards against exploitative or manipulative AI, backed by tough enforcement with criminal and civil penalties,” he said.
A Senate panel backed a separate measure Thursday requiring AI companies including OpenAI and Meta to maintain strict age verification systems and banning chatbots from pushing sexually explicit content or messages encouraging self-harm to minors. That measure passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously.
The rapid movement reflects how quickly Congress has shifted from skepticism about AI regulation to action. Six months ago, the same committees were holding hearings where senators struggled to articulate what AI chatbots even were. Now they are voting on criminal penalties for companies that make harmful AI for minors — and prediction market traders are already pricing the odds on which bill passes first. The CHATBOT Act would direct further study on potential chatbot-related harms and best practices for parents — an acknowledgment that Congress is still learning the terrain even as it legislates.
The full Senate will now have two major children’s AI safety bills to consider. The GUARD Act has the momentum and the markup win. The CHATBOT Act has the Commerce Committee chairman and a more industry-friendly approach. Both parties agree something needs to pass — they just don’t agree yet on whether the answer is a ban or a family account.
