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The CHATBOT Act requires AI chatbot providers to obtain verifiable parental consent before teens can create accounts, mandates family account structures for children under 13, and grants parents enforceable controls over their child's settings, data, and access.
OUR POSITIONThe CHATBOT Act (S. 4407) targets a specific and currently unregulated product category: public-facing websites, online services, and software applications whose primary function is providing an AI chatbot to users. Importantly, the bill's definition excludes customer service tools, productivity software, internal research tools, and educational products focused on building knowledge or skills. What remains in scope are the open-ended, conversational AI companions that have attracted the most concern about children's wellbeing, and the bill applies its requirements precisely there.
For children under 13, access to a covered chatbot requires a family account from the outset. For teens aged 13 through 17, covered entities must notify a parent before an account is created and obtain verifiable parental consent, using the standard already established under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, before the teen may proceed. Parents who do not set up a full family account for their teen are still protected: the bill requires the platform to lock the teen's account into the most protective default settings available under the family account framework, and those defaults cannot be changed by the teen. A parent may later create a family account and adjust settings from there.
The family account structure itself gives parents concrete, operational authority. The bill requires covered entities to let parents determine privacy and account settings for their child or teen, including the ability to limit time on the platform. Parental consent is also revocable: if a parent withdraws consent, the platform must suspend, delete, or disable the teen's account. These are not advisory nudges. They are legally enforceable obligations backed by FTC authority.
The bill also addresses the data that already exists. Covered entities must terminate any existing account of a known child who lacks a family account, or a known teen whose parent has not consented, and must immediately delete the personal data associated with that account. A 90-day window allows the user or parent to request a portable, readable copy of that data before deletion, which respects the family's interest in understanding what was collected. The platform may retain only a minimal compliance record.
A transparency label requirement runs throughout the bill: a clearly displayed, persistent notice must inform users that they are interacting with artificial intelligence and not a human being, and that outputs are AI-generated. The notice disappears only when the user exits or affirmatively dismisses it. This directly addresses the risk that children, in particular, may not understand the nature of what they are talking to. From a faith-informed perspective, parents bear a God-given responsibility to guard their children's formation. That responsibility cannot be honored when a child believes they are in a relationship with a person. This provision makes the truth about the technology a baseline condition of access, not an optional disclosure buried in settings.
S. 4407 was introduced on April 28, 2026, and referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; on August 5, 2026, the committee ordered it reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute, meaning the bill has cleared its most significant procedural hurdle in the Senate and now awaits floor scheduling. Its bipartisan sponsorship, led by Senators Cruz, Schatz, Curtis, and Schiff, signals cross-aisle support that typically eases a bill's path to floor consideration, though Senate floor time remains a finite resource in any session. Because the bill has been favorably reported and is now pending floor action rather than still working through committee, constituent contact directed at Senate leadership and individual senators about scheduling and final passage is the most timely and targeted action supporters can take.