On April 30, 2026 a bill that would ban artificial intelligence companions from interacting with children and teens received unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee and now awaits Senate floor action. The Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue Act (GUARD Act), would also require age verification for all users to interact with AI chatbots.
Under the bill, companies with AI chatbots would face criminal penalties of up to $100,000 per offense if their tools describe or engage in sexually explicit content or encourage or promote physical or sexual violence with someone under the age of 18. The act also requires an AI chatbot to disclose to all users that it is not a human being.
A bipartisan companion bill was introduced in the House the same day of the GUARD Act’s markup.
For more from K-12 Dive, click here.