Bill requires parental consent and controls for child chatbot use.

What it does

AI chatbot companies must get a parent's permission first. Children and teens can then use their services. Companies must set up family accounts with parental controls. Parents can set time limits, get alerts, and delete data. The bill bans ads aimed at minors. When an account closes, all personal data must be deleted. The FTC and state attorneys general will enforce the rules. The bill requires studies on chatbot effects on child mental health and social growth.

Who it affects

Parents and children who use AI chatbots are affected. AI chatbot companies must follow the new rules.

One thing to notice

Companies must figure out if a user is a child. There is no required age-check system, which could create unclear rules. Deleting data from a chatbot's memory may force companies to rebuild how they train their systems.

From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.

Where it stands

3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.

• Apr 28, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• Apr 28, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
• Aug 5, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of…”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

15 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 15 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.

Those reports show $10,801,909 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 13 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.

More groups named this bill than 95% of bills with any report.

Ted Cruz, who sponsored the bill, received $525,365 from PACs for the 2026 election.

• Ctia-the Wireless Association — $3,640,000 in 1 report
• American Association for Justice — $1,840,000 in 1 report
• Software & Information Industry Association — $1,396,909 in 1 report
• Entertainment Software Association — $1,390,000 in 1 report
• National Education Association — $670,000 in 1 report

Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.

Words to know

• parental consent — A parent's permission given before a child can do something.
• parental controls — Tools that let parents set limits on screen time, see activity, and erase data.
• FTC — The Federal Trade Commission, a U.S. government agency that protects consumers.
• personal data — Information about a person, such as their name, age, location, or interests.
• lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
• PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.