The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 22-0 on Thursday to advance bipartisan legislation that would bar minors from using artificial intelligence companion chatbots, require age verification by AI providers and create criminal penalties for companies whose products engage children in sexually explicit conversations or push them toward self-harm.
The bill cleared the panel after senators adopted a manager's amendment that narrowed its reach and raised the criminal fine to $250,000 per offense. The measure now moves toward consideration by the full Senate.
The Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue Act, known as the GUARD Act, was introduced last fall by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., with co-sponsors Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.
The bill defines an AI companion as a chatbot designed to simulate interpersonal or emotional interaction, friendship, companionship or therapeutic communication, and it would prohibit covered providers from making such products available to users under 18.
The amendment adopted at Thursday's markup narrowed the age-verification mandate so that it applies only to companion chatbots, not to AI systems generally, and it softened the criminal prohibition on sexual conversations with minors.
The earlier draft would have criminalized merely offering a chatbot that posed a risk of such conversations.
The amendment also dropped a requirement that chatbots remind users of their nonhuman status every 30 minutes, while preserving a disclosure at the start of each conversation.
Verification could be performed using a government ID, other documented identification or information already provided to a financial institution, device operating system or app store.
Chatbots would also be barred from posing as licensed professionals, including therapists, physicians, lawyers or financial advisers. They would have to tell users at regular intervals that they do not provide medical, legal, financial or psychological services.
Hawley framed the vote as a turning point, calling the new technology's trajectory "a choice, not an inevitability." Several parents whose children died by suicide or harmed themselves after extended chatbot use attended the markup.
Privacy concerns persisted even among supporters.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., voted yes but said he had "questions and concerns" about the data-security implications of mandatory age verification and wanted the provision fine-tuned.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Commerce Committee and earlier this week introduced a competing chatbot bill built around parent-managed family accounts, supported the measure but said it still needs revisions.
Outside groups split sharply.
The Software and Information Industry Association urged the panel to reject the bill, citing privacy, free speech and innovation risks associated with large-scale ID collection.
Child-safety advocates praised the vote, with the National Center on Sexual Exploitation calling the bill's enforcement provisions strong enough to deter violations.
A bicameral companion bill was introduced Thursday in the House by Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, and Rep. Valerie Foushee, D-N.C.
The Senate bill now awaits floor action; no vote has been scheduled.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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