Lawsuits reveal how chatbots harm children—can the new Senate bills solve it?

The U.S. Senate has introduced two bipartisan bills in response to a series of lawsuits alleging that AI chatbots harm children. The GUARD Act requires age verification for chatbots, bans minors from using companion platforms, and criminalizes providing sexual content to minors or inducing them to self-harm or commit violence, with fines of up to $250,000 per violation; the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously on April 30. The CHATBOT Act focuses on in-platform protections, requiring parental-managed accounts for children under 13 and verifiable parental consent for ages 13 to 17, with civil enforcement by the FTC and state attorneys general. The article notes that neither bill requires platforms to intervene in real time during a crisis, the CHATBOT Act only covers platforms whose primary function is chatbots, and neither establishes a duty-of-care standard or touches Section 230.