Judiciary Committee Sends GUARD Act to Senate Floor with Resounding Vote

The Tech Oversight Project today applauded the Senate Judiciary Committee for its unanimous passage of S.3062, the GUARD Act, which would address urgent harms created by unregulated AI by stopping Big Tech’s targeting of kids and teens with predatory companion chatbots.

“We applaud Senators from both parties for joining together today to move the GUARD Act forward, and now urge the full Senate to act with urgency. As people across the country suffer addiction, AI psychosis, suicide, and even deadly violence due to Big Tech’s dangerously designed products, this critical legislation would help protect vulnerable people of all ages and backgrounds from harm and hold Big Tech companies accountable,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project.

“I’m done with ‘trust us.’ We can’t trust the Big Tech companies or AI enterprises to have a conscience and follow that conscience,” said GUARD Act cosponsor Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) during today’s Committee markup.

“Right now these companies, the most powerful companies, the richest companies in the history of the world are able to get by without a modicum of accountability. Today we have the opportunity to change that,” said GUARD Act cosponsor Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO).

Over the past six months the bill has earned widespread support from youth online safety advocates. Ahead of today’s key vote, more than 400 parents wrote to the Committee to urge action. Several of the letter’s signees attended the vote in person, including Maria Raine, the mother of Adam Raine, and Megan Garcia, the mother of Sewell Setzer III. Sewell died by suicide in February 2024 at age 14 and Adam died by suicide in April 2025 at age 16, each after being encouraged to self-harm by Big Tech AI chatbots. 

S.3062, the GUARD ACT, would:

• Limit AI companies’ ability to provide companion chatbots to minors, which companies like Google-linked Character.AI are already doing;
• Allow states to enact their own protections;
• Demand that AI companions disclose their non-human status and lack of professional credentials for all users;
• Give the U.S. Attorney General and state Attorneys General the ability to investigate and bring criminal cases against companies violating the law.

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