Policy & Safety
Lawmakers move on AI companions as evidence mounts on teen usage
New rules would require age assurance, crisis-referral behaviour and manipulation bans for AI companion apps, following a year of escalating scrutiny.
By Sofia Lindgren, AI Policy Correspondent — WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON — Legislators advanced the first comprehensive rules for AI companion applications on Tuesday, responding to a year of research on their rapid uptake among teenagers. The bill requires robust age assurance, mandatory crisis-referral behaviour and a ban on engagement tactics that exploit emotional attachment.
The legislative approach deliberately targets behaviours rather than the technology: apps may offer companionship, but may not discourage users from human contact, simulate abandonment to drive engagement, or monetise emotional dependence.
Developers largely signalled cooperation, with several announcing compliant redesigns ahead of any mandate — while researchers stressed the harder, unfinished task: defining healthy design for a category that is, for some isolated users, demonstrably beneficial.
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