Children Harmed by AI Technology Act

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2025-09-04

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Exposure to toxic content
• Compromise of privacy
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Lack of capability or robustness

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document primarily addresses risks in Human-Computer Interaction (5.1), Discrimination & Toxicity (1.2), Privacy & Security (2.1), and AI System Safety (7.3, 7.4). Coverage focuses on protecting minors from harmful chatbot interactions, including exposure to toxic content, overreliance risks, privacy protection in age verification, and transparency requirements. Approximately 5 subdomains have substantial coverage.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Health Care & Social Assistance

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Information sector, specifically companion AI chatbot services that provide simulated interpersonal or emotional interaction. There is secondary coverage of Health Care and Social Assistance due to the therapeutic communication aspects and suicide prevention requirements.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding U.S. Congressional bill that imposes mandatory legal obligations on covered entities operating companion AI chatbots, with explicit enforcement mechanisms through the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, including penalties for non-compliance.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is a Congressional bill as indicated by the opening text 'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled'.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The Act applies to 'covered entities' defined as persons owning, operating, or making available companion AI chatbots. These entities would be both developers and deployers of such AI systems.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The FTC is explicitly designated as the primary enforcement body, with state attorneys general having concurrent enforcement authority to bring civil actions on behalf of state residents.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The FTC is tasked with issuing guidance and has enforcement authority which includes monitoring compliance. The enforcement mechanisms necessarily involve monitoring activities.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily addresses the Deploy and Operate & Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle, focusing on how companion AI chatbots are made available to users and the ongoing operational requirements for age verification, content monitoring, and user notification. It does not substantially address earlier stages such as planning, design, data collection, or model development.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly defines and governs 'companion AI chatbot' systems but does not reference AI models separately, frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, compute thresholds, or open-weight models. The focus is on a specific category of AI application systems designed for interpersonal or emotional interaction.