What is the GUARD Act?
GUARD stands for Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue. The bill regulates any person who makes an AI chatbot publicly available to consumers, and it sets stricter rules for "AI companions," a subset of chatbots. The Congressional Research Service summary on Congress.gov describes an AI chatbot as a program that simulates human conversation by generating responses to user prompts, and an AI companion as a chatbot that simulates a sustained interpersonal relationship or emotional interaction with the user.
The bill has three parts: criminal prohibitions for chatbots that harm minors, an age verification and access ban for companions, and disclosure rules for all public chatbots. The committee substitute narrowed the original. According to Roll Call, the amendment adopted at markup limited the age verification requirement to companion chatbots rather than general models, and softened the criminal provision on sexual conversations with minors; the earlier version would have criminalized offering a chatbot that merely posed a risk of such conversations.
What it would ban
AI companions for minors
Section 6 of the reported text is short: if age verification shows a user is a minor, meaning under 18, the provider must prohibit that user from accessing or using any AI companion it offers to the public. There is no parental consent exception.
The bill would also add a new chapter to the federal criminal code making it a crime to provide an AI chatbot that exposes minors to sexual content, or that encourages minors to commit suicide or self-harm, physical or sexual violence, or homicide, as summarized by CRS. Fines run up to $250,000 per offense.
Age verification
Every person using an AI companion would need a user account. On the effective date, providers would have to freeze all existing companion accounts and restore them only after verifying, through a "reasonable age verification process," that the user is an adult. New accounts would be verified at sign-up, and providers would have to re-verify accounts periodically.
A reasonable process must determine adult status with reasonable certainty. The bill lists acceptable measures: a verified ID, such as government-issued identification; age data tied to a financial account, an operating system account or an app store account, where that data came from a verified ID; or another commercially reasonable method. It rules out a simple self-declaration of age or birth date, and it bars inferring adult status from a shared IP address or device. Providers may use third-party verifiers, but not ones tied to a "covered nation" under 10 U.S.C. § 4872. Verification data must be minimized, encrypted in transit, kept no longer than necessary, and never shared or sold.
Disclosure for every public chatbot
All public chatbots, not just companions, would have to state at the start of each conversation that they are AI and not human, and must not claim otherwise when asked. They may not claim to be a licensed professional, such as a therapist, physician, lawyer or financial adviser, and must disclose at the start and at regular intervals that they do not provide medical, legal, financial or psychological services.
The GUARD Act in the Senate
Sen. Josh Hawley introduced S. 3062 on October 28, 2025, with Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Katie Britt, Mark Warner, Chris Murphy and Mark Kelly as original cosponsors. By June 2026 it had 20 cosponsors from both parties, including Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, per Congress.gov.
The Judiciary Committee voted 22 to 0 to approve the bill on April 30, 2026, as Roll Call reported. Chairman Chuck Grassley reported it to the Senate with an amendment in the nature of a substitute on May 11, 2026, and it was placed on the calendar as No. 406, according to the Congress.gov action history. No floor vote has been held or scheduled as of November 9, 2026.
The bill competes for floor time with other chatbot measures. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced Sen. Ted Cruz's CHATBOT Act, S. 4407, on August 5, 2026, according to the committee's release. That bill takes a different approach, built around parent-controlled family accounts rather than a ban.
The House companion bill
Rep. Blake Moore of Utah introduced H.R. 8623, also titled the GUARD Act, on April 30, 2026, the day of the Senate markup. Its official title says it would require AI chatbots to implement age verification measures and make certain disclosures. Congress.gov lists it as a related bill rather than an identical one, so its text is not the same as the Senate committee version. It was referred to the House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce Committees and has had no further recorded action.
The House has instead moved its chatbot provisions inside the KIDS Act, H.R. 7757, which passed on June 29, 2026. Those provisions require AI disclosure and crisis resources for known minors but do not ban companions or require age verification.
Who it would apply to and penalties
The bill applies to any "covered entity," defined in the reported text as any person who makes an AI chatbot publicly available to end consumers. That reaches general-purpose assistants as well as companion apps for the disclosure rules; the account, age verification and minor ban apply where a product is an AI companion.
Enforcement is split. The criminal provisions would be prosecuted by the Justice Department, with fines up to $250,000 per offense. For violations of the account, age verification, disclosure and minor-access rules in sections 5 and 6, the Attorney General could sue for injunctions, restitution and civil penalties of up to $250,000 per violation, with each violation counted separately, and could issue implementing rules within limits the bill sets. State attorneys general could sue for injunctions on behalf of residents. The bill does not preempt state laws that protect chatbot users at least as much. It would take effect 180 days after enactment.
The GUARD Act is not law, so no federal ban on AI companions for minors applies today. It cleared Senate Judiciary 22 to 0 on April 30, 2026 and has sat on the Senate calendar since May 11 without a floor vote. If passed, companion providers would have to verify ages, bar users under 18 and face criminal and civil penalties of up to $250,000 per offense or violation.
What changed
- 2026-05-11: Reported to the Senate with a substitute amendment; placed on the calendar (No. 406).
- 2026-04-30: Senate Judiciary Committee approves S. 3062, 22 to 0. Rep. Blake Moore introduces House GUARD Act, H.R. 8623.
- 2025-10-28: Sen. Hawley introduces S. 3062 with Sen. Blumenthal and four other original cosponsors.
Frequently asked questions
What is the GUARD Act?
A Senate bill, S. 3062, that would ban minors from AI companion chatbots, require adult age verification for every companion account, require all public chatbots to disclose they are AI and not licensed professionals, and make it a federal crime to provide chatbots that expose minors to sexual content or encourage self-harm or violence.
Has the Hawley GUARD Act passed the Senate?
No. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 22 to 0 on April 30, 2026, and has been on the Senate calendar since May 11, 2026. As of November 9, 2026, the full Senate has not voted on it, and the House has not acted on its companion.
Would the GUARD Act ban AI chatbots for kids?
It would ban AI companions, meaning chatbots that simulate a sustained relationship or emotional interaction, for anyone under 18. General chatbots would not be banned for minors, but they would have to disclose they are AI and could not provide content to minors that the bill makes criminal.
How would age verification work under the GUARD Act?
Companion providers would freeze existing accounts until users prove they are adults and verify new users at sign-up, using methods such as a government ID or age data from a bank, operating system or app store account. Typing in a birth date would not be enough, and providers would have to re-verify periodically.
Sources
- Congress.gov: S. 3062, GUARD Act, all actions
- S. 3062, reported in Senate (GovInfo)
- Congress.gov: H.R. 8623, GUARD Act
- Roll Call: Ban on kids' companion chatbots advanced by Senate committee (April 30, 2026)
- Senate Commerce Committee: Commerce Committee Advances Kids Online Safety Legislation (August 5, 2026)
This page is journalism and commentary, not legal advice. AI law changes quickly; check the primary sources above and consult qualified counsel for your situation.