Washington is taking another swing at the fast-moving world of AI companions, with a bipartisan Senate proposal aimed at keeping minors away from manipulative, sexualized and potentially dangerous chatbot interactions.
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey and Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio introduced the Children Harmed by AI Technology Act 2.0 on Thursday, according to News 12 New York. The measure would create a tiered, risk-based federal framework, with separate standards for educational, companion and health chatbots.
For minors, the proposal would require age-verification measures, parental controls, usage limits and break reminders. It would also require chatbots to disclose that they are not human, bar romantic or emotionally manipulative conversations with children, prohibit sexual content and self-harm encouragement, and prevent AI systems from presenting themselves as licensed professionals.
The bill would require parental notification if a minor expresses suicidal thoughts to a chatbot and establish crisis-referral protocols. It would also prohibit AI companion systems from providing crisis counseling to minors, a line lawmakers appear determined to draw before a chatbot starts playing therapist, best friend and emergency hotline all at once.
Kim and Husted Build on an Earlier AI Safety Push
The proposal expands on Husted’s original CHAT Act, introduced in 2025, which sought parental consent, age checks, limits on sexually explicit interactions and alerts when a child discusses self-harm or suicide. The senator’s office described that earlier bill as an effort to ensure parents—not chatbot companies—remain responsible for decisions involving children’s online safety, according to the U.S. Senate office of Jon Husted.
The renewed push comes as federal regulators examine how AI companions are built and marketed. The Federal Trade Commission said it had sought information from seven companies about how their chatbots affect children and teens, including how the services handle safety testing, disclosures, engagement tactics and personal data.
A Growing Patchwork of Rules
Congress is not working in a vacuum. The National Conference of State Legislatures says lawmakers in at least 40 states and Puerto Rico introduced more than 300 measures in 2026 addressing children’s online safety, including age verification and rules for AI chatbots.
Hoodline has previously reported on similar efforts in Missouri and Washington, where lawmakers have pursued restrictions on age checks, sexually explicit chatbot conversations, emotional dependency tactics and crisis-response requirements. That emerging patchwork is one reason supporters of the federal bill are pushing for a single national baseline instead of a fifty-state maze.
Privacy Questions Could Shape the Fight
The proposal’s enforcement provisions would give the FTC and state attorneys general authority to pursue violations, but the bill still faces the usual congressional gauntlet before it could change how chatbot companies operate. The biggest fights may involve how age verification works, what data companies can collect and whether parental notification requirements create new privacy risks.
Those concerns have surfaced around Husted’s earlier proposal. In a 2025 letter, the R Street Institute and other groups argued that broad definitions and mandatory age checks could sweep in ordinary conversational tools while exposing children and families to additional data-collection risks. CHAT Act 2.0 now puts those unresolved questions back in the Senate spotlight.
