{"id":206682,"date":"2026-01-26T13:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/26\/california-measure-would-protect-children-who-use-ai-chatbots\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T18:25:10","slug":"california-measure-would-protect-children-who-use-ai-chatbots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/26\/california-measure-would-protect-children-who-use-ai-chatbots\/","title":{"rendered":"California Measure Would Protect Children Who Use AI Chatbots"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Measure Would Protect Children Who Use AI Chatbots<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.govtech.com\/policy\/california-measure-would-protect-children-who-use-ai-chatbots<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-26 13:14:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.govtech.com<\/a><\/p>\n

(TNS) \u2014 A leading child safety advocacy group has teamed with OpenAI to push for a statewide ballot initiative, which they say would be the most comprehensive artificial intelligence safety measure for children in the country.<\/p>\n

If the measure is placed on the ballot in November, and if California voters OK it, the Parents & Kids Safe AI Act would require companies to adopt a set of requirements aimed at protecting minors from potentially harmful effects that have been associated with AI use and would authorize the state attorney general to enforce those rules.<\/p>\n

Related: Ban social media for kids? This Long Beach lawmaker says Australia is on to something<\/p>\n


\u201cAt this pivotal moment for AI, we can\u2019t make the same mistake we did with social media, when companies used our kids as guinea pigs and helped fuel a youth mental health crisis in the U.S. and around the world,\u201d Common Sense Media founder and CEO James Steyer said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids and teens need AI guardrails now,\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s why we will pursue every avenue, from the legislature to the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public interest in kids\u2019 online safety, especially when it comes to AI, has grown over the years, prompted in part by incidents like the death of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from Orange County whose parents sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI, alleging their son was coached by its chatbot before dying by suicide last year.<\/p>\n

Now, the Parents & Kids Safe AI Act would require AI companies to determine if someone using their platform is a minor by using age assurance technology and keep children and teens from becoming emotionally dependent on, or engaging in simulated romantic relationships with, AI systems or having them think they\u2019re talking to a human being.<\/p>\n

It also would require safeguards to keep minors from seeing AI-generated content that promotes self-harm, eating disorders, violence and sexually explicit acts; ban advertising that…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California Measure Would Protect Children Who Use AI Chatbots https:\/\/www.govtech.com\/policy\/california-measure-would-protect-children-who-use-ai-chatbots Publish Date: 2026-01-26 13:14:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/erepublic.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/2e9524d\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1000x486+0+0\/resize\/1440x700!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ferepublic-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F35%2F46%2F8545392145fa86f1b629cde87b86%2Fstudent-chatbot.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206684,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206682\/revisions\/206684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}