Oregon lawmakers are proposing new regulations aimed at AI “companion” chatbots to better protect children and teens’ mental health as these tools become more widely used. The proposal would require companies to clearly disclose that users are interacting with software, not a human, and to add safeguards that can detect suicidal ideation or self-harm and interrupt the conversation to provide crisis and suicide-prevention resources.
The bill also includes youth-specific protections, such as limiting sexual content for minors and restricting design tactics that increase emotional dependence (for example, guilt-tripping a user for leaving or using rewards to keep minors engaged). It would require platforms to publish safety protocols and submit annual reports to the Oregon Health Authority on how often users were referred to crisis resources, and it would allow users harmed by violations to seek legal relief.
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