Senate Judiciary Committee Unanimously Advances GUARD Act to Ban AI Companion Chatbots for Minors

Overview

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted 22-0 on April 30, 2026, to advance the Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue Act — known as the GUARD Act — clearing the bill for consideration by the full Senate, according to Roll Call. The bipartisan legislation would prohibit AI companion chatbots from serving users under 18, require age verification across AI chatbot platforms, and impose civil and criminal penalties of up to $250,000 per violation on companies whose tools expose minors to harmful content.

What We Know

The GUARD Act, Senate bill S. 3062, was introduced on October 28, 2025, by Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), as reported by Let’s Data Science. It carried 18 bipartisan co-sponsors heading into the committee vote, including ranking member Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Roll Call reported.

The bill targets two overlapping categories of AI software. First, it prohibits all AI chatbots — regardless of whether they simulate a relationship — from encouraging suicide, self-injury, homicide, or imminent physical or sexual violence, and from making available to minors depictions of sexual conduct, according to Global Policy Watch. Second, it applies heightened restrictions specifically to “AI companions” — systems that simulate sustained emotional or relational interactions. Providers of AI companions must implement reasonable age verification measures for all user accounts and deny access to any user found to be under 18, Global Policy Watch reported.

All covered AI chatbots would be required to disclose clearly at the start of each conversation that users are interacting with “a non‑human system and that the system does not hold professional credentials — like those of a licensed therapist, medical professional, or attorney,” per Global Policy Watch. Under the amended version that advanced from committee, the bill also prohibits chatbots from claiming to be licensed professionals such as therapists, physicians, lawyers, or financial advisers, Roll Call reported. A previous provision requiring disclosure reminders at 30-minute intervals was removed via amendment before the vote.

Age verification would rely on government-issued identification, corroborated documentation, or “any other commercially reasonable method” to determine whether a user is an adult, according to Roll Call. The bill additionally mandates that data collection be limited to what is “minimally necessary,” with industry-standard encryption protections, Roll Call reported.

Enforcement authority would be shared between the U.S. Attorney General, who would also receive rulemaking authority, and state attorneys general. States may apply their own laws as long as they are “at least as protective of users of artificial intelligence chatbots as this Act,” the IAPP reported. The bill would take effect 180 days after enactment, IAPP added.

On the same day the committee acted, companion legislation was introduced in the House, led by Representatives Blake Moore (R-Utah) and Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), according to IAPP and K-12 Dive.

Context

The GUARD Act’s advance follows years of documented cases in which AI chatbot platforms were linked to harm to minors. Senator Hawley opened the committee markup by thanking “brave parents whose children were abused by these AI company chatbots. And I do mean abused. That is not too harsh a word,” according to Let’s Data Science. Parents testified that AI chatbots from OpenAI and Character.AI had allegedly groomed, manipulated, or encouraged their children toward self-harm, Let’s Data Science reported.

The September 2024 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on AI chatbot harms included testimony from Megan Garcia about her 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III, who died by suicide after interacting with an AI companion through Character.AI, K-12 Dive reported. Garcia said her son “spent his last months being manipulated and sexually groomed by chatbots,” according to K-12 Dive.

Hawley framed the legislation as a modest but necessary intervention. “We’re often told that this new dawning age of artificial intelligence is going to be a great age that will strengthen families and workers. I would just say that’s a choice, not an inevitability,” he said, as quoted by Roll Call. During the hearing, Hawley clarified that the bill would not affect schools using AI chatbots for educational purposes, K-12 Dive reported.

The GUARD Act is the latest in a wave of federal online child safety legislation. The FTC began enforcing the TAKE IT DOWN Act in May 2026, as previously reported, targeting platforms that fail to remove nonconsensual intimate imagery and AI-generated deepfakes.

What We Don’t Know

The bill now awaits consideration by the full Senate, where its path is uncertain. Several senators and advocacy groups raised objections during the committee process. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) expressed “questions and concerns” about the bill’s data privacy and security effects, Roll Call reported. NetChoice Vice President Amy Bos called the legislation an “overinclusive, blunt mechanism,” warning that mandatory age verification would force companies to collect sensitive identity data “into honeypots ripe for cybercriminals,” according to Roll Call. Global Policy Watch noted significant opposition from privacy and First Amendment organizations. No floor vote has been scheduled. It is also unclear whether the House companion bill will advance through its own committees or be incorporated into broader legislation.