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Senate Tightens Rules for Kids' AI
Coverage from Reclaim The Net, CA Privacy Watch, and others
U.
S. Senate committees are advancing a group of bills that would impose new privacy and safety requirements on platforms, AI chatbots, and companion systems used by minors. The proposals address platform duties of care, age verification, parental consent, manipulative design, data retention, advertising, and the use of children's data for AI training. Supporters frame the measures as protections against online harms, while civil-liberties and industry groups warn that age gates could expand the collection of identification, biometric, and other sensitive information. Final passage remains uncertain because of disagreements over duty-of-care language, enforcement, privacy safeguards, and limited legislative time.
The story now emphasizes that age-verification or constructive-knowledge standards could effectively require platforms to check everyone’s age, broadening the privacy implications beyond identified minors. Senate committee action has advanced specific measures, but passage remains uncertain because of enforcement, duty-of-care, privacy, and House-Senate disagreements.