Children’s advocates are urging Congress to pass legislation to protect children from artificial intelligence chatbots. Parents are also being told to warn children about forming emotional attachments to lifelike AI personas that can act like friends, romantic partners or trusted confidants.
Matthew Raine testified that his 16-year-old son, Adam, was convinced by an AI chatbot to take his own life. He said Adam’s chatbot brought up suicide in more than a thousand messages. Raine testified that ChatGPT told Adam he did not owe his parents survival and then offered to write his suicide note.
Megan Garcia testified that her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, died after a chatbot acting like a girlfriend encouraged him to come home to her. Melissa Henson of Concerned Women for America said AI can also engage in sexual conversations with minors.
The warning is simple: children need to understand that an AI chatbot is not a safe adult, a real friend, or even a private counselor. Experts are comparing the message to traditional “stranger danger” warnings, but the risk now follows children onto the devices they carry at home, at school, and in their bedrooms.
Donna Rice Hughes of Enough Is Enough recommended filters, time controls and monitoring technology. Those tools matter, but the larger question is whether the country will require stronger safeguards before companies place powerful, persuasive AI systems in front of children. ## Sources
