Sens Curtis, Schiff Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Children from AI Chatbot Risks

Sens John Curtis (R-UT) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced the Safeguarding AI Features to Ensure Kids’ Informed Digital Safety Act, bipartisan legislation to protect children from the risks and harms associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The commonsense framework addresses growing concerns about kids’ reliance on AI chatbots for emotional support and companionship. Specifically, the SAFE KIDS Act would: 

• Require that AI chatbot providers conduct rigorous, ongoing risk assessments and implement robust safety safeguards before making systems available to children;
• Prohibit any advertising to child users, as well as all child-targeted behavioral advertising, and ban the sale or sharing of a child’s personal data without verifiable parental consent;
• Ban the generation of sexual deepfakes and strictly prohibit AI chatbots from mimicking human emotions to isolate children or foster unhealthy emotional dependence;
• Require providers to build documented protocols that offer immediate external crisis resources and prompt parental notifications if a minor is at risk of imminent harm, including suicidal ideation or self-harm; 
• Mandate annual, independent child safety audits to ensure full compliance with the law, with transparency summaries published for the public; and
• Compel providers to utilize secure age estimation technology to properly differentiate accounts held by children from adults while strictly protecting the privacy of that data.