Finally a blanket Bill to Ban U18's with Chatbots
Character.AI age Verification = GOOD Senator bills to ban all under-18’s = PERFECT.
We NEED all countries to Respond in the same way!
Character AI has finally bowed to pressure and banned under-18s from its chatbot. It should never have taken this long. But while most people are still focused on that, the real story is in Washington.
Two US senators, Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal, have had enough. They have introduced the GUARD Act, a bill that would force every AI chatbot provider to verify that users are adults, to disclose that their systems are not human, and to stop serving harmful or sexualised content to minors.
THE HORRIBLE BIT
The industry has treated children as collateral in its race to scale. It has allowed chatbots to become companions, therapists and influencers for kids who were never meant to be their audience.
As a father of a 14-year-old daughter, I find this impossible to ignore. I do not often agree with US politics, but on this they are absolutely right. The companies building these systems knew what was happening. They watched it happen. And they looked away.
Age verification will not solve everything. But it signals that lawmakers are finally waking up to what has been obvious for years. Children were never supposed to be beta testers for emotional manipulation.
Implement the Bill then FINE THEM HARD. No excuses no exceptions hit them where it hurts.
↳I track how stories like this shape the ethics, risk and governance of AI. More context at discarded.ai
↳ I support the The Safe AI For Children Alliance and Tara Steele please make sure you do too