Youth AI Privacy Act

The Youth AI Privacy Act (S. 4199) would require companies that make AI chatbots available to minors to add specific safeguards. Chatbots would have to disclose, in age-appropriate language, that users are talking to AI rather than a human, repeating this notice at the start of each session and at least every 30 minutes. The bill would also direct the Federal Trade Commission to write rules limiting how long minors' personal data can be used to personalize chatbot responses, and to ban features like usage-based rewards, push notifications, unsolicited AI messages, and "typing" indicators designed to encourage compulsive use. Separately, it would bar chatbots from advertising to minors, profiling them, or using their data to train AI models (with narrow safety-testing exceptions).

The requirements apply to "deployers" and "developers" of AI chatbots offered to users under 18, and are enforceable by the FTC, state attorneys general, and — for the design and privacy provisions — parents or guardians through private lawsuits. The bill also protects employees who report violations, funds federal research into AI chatbots' effects on youth mental health ($50 million annually, FY2027–2030), and directs CDC/NIH to add chatbot-use questions to national health surveys.

The bill was introduced in the Senate on March 25, 2026, and on August 5, 2026 the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee voted to report it favorably with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Next, it would go to the full Senate for consideration; it would also need to pass the House and be signed by the President to become law.

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