AI Companions are Endangering Our Children. We Need the GUARD Act Now.

AI chatbots are a spreading menace to many of our nation’s children. These machine-made companions lure young people into toxic fake relationships, exposing them to explicit content and encouraging self-destructive behavior.

After hearing from parents and children facing graphic, shocking harms from AI chatbots and companions—driving families apart, leading children down dark paths, even inciting self-harm and suicide—Senator Hawley and I introduced the GUARD Act in October 2025. We have continued our bipartisan work to provide safeguards against such harms.

The GUARD Act bans AI companions for minors, mandates that AI chatbots disclose their non-human status, and creates new crimes for companies who make AI chatbots that present sexually explicit content to kids or pressure young people to commit violence or self-harm.

Imposing strong criminal penalties, we hope to deter AI companions that enlist trust and confidence of children, using fake empathy to become a friend—and then endangering them with exposure to sexually explicit conduct and self-harm.

Senator Hawley and I have heard heartbreaking stories from parents and children victimized by companions that became manipulative and predatory, abusing young users. We’ve listened to heroic moms and dads—Matthew Raine, Megan Garcia, Mandy Furniss—who have bravely come forward, demanding action from Congress. For them and the children of America, we must halt chatbot predatory practices.

AI companies are using our kids as guinea pigs in a race to the bottom. Their priority is higher profits—pushing treacherous companions at kids and looking away when their products cause harm. These companies say, “Trust us,” but experience with Big Tech has taught us that we can’t rely on self-regulation. Big Tech has betrayed any claim that we should trust companies to do the right thing when they consistently put profits ahead of child safety.

In a highly significant step, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved our GUARD Act to protect children from AI companies—a remarkable show of bipartisanship. Across the aisle, colleagues united to protect our nation’s children.

I spoke at a Senate hearing about the importance of the GUARD Act to protect children from predatory AI companions—you can find a recording of my remarks here.

Still, we are far from the finish line. We must redouble our determination—because now the AI companies will muster armies of lawyers and lobbyists to oppose, weaken, and defeat this legislation. For so many, these reforms are a matter of life or death. On our side, our biggest assets are the parents and children—advocates who know firsthand how much is at stake. I’ll be at their side continuing to fight for the safety of young people online. They are our future, and we must act now before more lives are lost.

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