Senators Unveil Bipartisan Bill to Protect Kids From AI Chatbots

A bipartisan pair of senators has introduced a bill to help protect children against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence chatbots.

Sens. John Curtis (R-Utah) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday announced their bill, the Safeguarding AI Features to Ensure Kids’ Informed Digital Safety, or SAFE KIDS, Act. The legislation would require chatbot providers to create safeguards before making technology available to children, bar advertising to children and prevent chatbots from creating sexual deepfakes and copying human emotions.

“Already we have heard tragic stories of kids who have been influenced by the powerful, and still sometimes unpredictable, outputs of an AI chatbot,” Schiff said in a release. “These chatbots can represent the power of the entire internet in a humanlike form, and impressionable kids need to be protected from its worst impulses – and from seeing their data misused by the companies behind them.”

The bill would also prevent the sale of the personal data of children without parental consent and mandate independent child safety audits.

“Parents deserve confidence that AI tools are not exposing their children to harmful content, fostering unhealthy emotional dependence, or exploiting their personal information,” Curtis said in a statement.

The legislation comes as lawmakers seek to increase federal oversight on AI. House lawmakers on Monday reached an agreementon more than a dozen bills to bolster safety and privacy protections for children, including the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA.

Still, a pair of key senators expressed dismay over the House bill. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the lead sponsors on the Senate’s version of KOSA, criticized the House version of the bill for excluding “duty of care” language meant to hold social media companies accountable to protect kids from harmful content.