Congress mandates age checks and parental oversight for AI chatbots targeting minors.
H.R. 7218 — CHAT Act · Filed by Michael Lawler (R-NY) · Introduced Jan 22, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires AI chatbot companies to verify users' ages, obtain parental consent for minors, and implement safeguards including blocking sexually explicit content for minors, monitoring for suicidal ideation, and displaying notifications that users are talking to a bot, not a human. The FTC enforces compliance, and states can sue on behalf of residents; companies get a safe harbor if they follow FTC guidance and industry standards in good faith.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a regulatory framework requiring age verification, parental consent, content filtering, and bot-disclosure for companion AI chatbots. It is a consumer-protection and child-safety measure, not a tax, subsidy, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- Age verification infrastructure may create a de facto identity registry for minors using AI chatbots, raising privacy and data-breach risks if companies are breached or data is misused.
- The 'commercially available method' standard for age verification is undefined; companies may use credit cards, government ID, or third-party verification services, shifting compliance cost and privacy exposure to users.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
Age verification service providers; Identity verification and authentication vendors; Parental control software companies