SAFE KIDS Act

Summary#

This bill sets rules for AI chatbots when children might use them. It defines key terms (like "child," "AI chatbot," and "age signal") and requires companies that provide AI chatbots to adopt child-focused safety measures. Major requirements include using age-estimation so unverified users are treated as children, doing risk assessments, building parental settings, publishing a child safety policy, keeping data secure, and running annual independent audits. The bill bans advertising to children, bans child-targeted behavioral advertising, and generally bans selling or sharing a child's personal information without verifiable parental consent. It also requires crisis-response protocols for suicide or self-harm risks, limits certain harmful content (for example, sexual content, graphic violence, or material that encourages self-harm), and requires clear notices when a child is interacting with an AI system. The Federal Trade Commission (the Commission) enforces the rules, can make regulations, and may assess civil penalties (including specified per-user penalties for some violations). The law would take effect 180 days after enactment.

What it means for you#

• If you use an AI chatbot and are not proven to be an adult, the provider must treat you as a child for safety purposes.
• Companies must try to estimate users' ages and periodically re-check accounts.
• Parents can access parental settings that can limit features, set time limits, control memory and training use of a child's data, and disable access for children under 13.
• Parents may receive notifications if a child is at imminent risk of suicide or has suffered a covered harm, unless notifying is judged not in the child’s best interest as defined by the Commission.
• Providers must post a public child safety policy, accept incident reports, and run yearly independent audits.
• Providers cannot advertise to children, target ads to children, or sell/share children’s personal information without verifiable parental consent (with limited exceptions for legal or law-enforcement needs).

Expenses#

No publicly available information on estimated costs to companies, parents, or the government is included in the bill text. The bill does require providers to pay for annual independent audits and to implement technical systems (age estimation, parental controls, data security), but it does not provide cost estimates in the bill text.

Proponents' View#

No publicly available information in the bill text about who supports the bill or the arguments they make.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information in the bill text about who opposes the bill or the arguments they make.