Are There Laws Specifically Protecting Children From AI-Related Harms?

Existing Privacy Law Applied to a New Technology

In a number of jurisdictions, laws that predate modern generative AI — most notably children’s online privacy laws such as the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act — are being applied to AI products and services that collect personal data from children. These laws generally impose requirements around parental consent and data handling practices for online services that knowingly collect information from children under a specified age threshold. Applying these older legal frameworks to newer AI chatbot and companion products requires some interpretation, since the specific ways AI systems collect, use, and retain conversational data can differ from the types of data collection these laws were originally designed to address.

This approach — applying existing general protections to a new technology — is often the first line of legal protection in places that have not yet enacted AI-specific children’s safety legislation.

Emerging AI-Specific Legislation

Beyond general privacy law, a smaller but growing number of jurisdictions have introduced or enacted legislation specifically targeting AI chatbots or companion apps in the context of minors. These newer proposals and laws have addressed issues such as requiring specific safety features for AI products likely to be used by minors, mandating disclosure that a user is interacting with an AI rather than a human, and in some cases imposing specific restrictions or requirements on companion-style apps given their documented emotional engagement with young users. The scope, specific requirements, and enforcement mechanisms behind these newer laws vary considerably from one jurisdiction to another, reflecting the fact that this is a relatively new and still-developing area of legislative activity.

The Role of High-Profile Incidents in Accelerating Legislative Attention

Publicly reported incidents involving children and AI companion apps have played a notable role in accelerating legislative attention to this issue, with lawmakers in several jurisdictions specifically citing such cases as motivation for proposed or enacted legislation. This pattern — a documented real-world incident prompting more specific legislative action — is common in the development of technology law more broadly, and suggests that this area of law is likely to continue evolving as additional cases and research come to light.

Given the pace of change in both AI technology and the surrounding legal landscape, parents, caregivers, and organizations with specific legal questions about protections for children in a given jurisdiction should consult current guidance from a qualified attorney or relevant regulatory body.

Bottom Line

A growing but still limited and uneven set of laws specifically addresses AI-related harms to children, combining existing general children’s online privacy protections applied to AI products with a smaller but increasing number of newer, AI-specific legislative proposals and enacted rules. This remains an actively developing area of law, often shaped by public attention to specific documented incidents, and specific legal protections vary considerably by jurisdiction.

Go deeper

• Do minors have different legal protections than adults when using ai chatbots?
• Can AI Health Apps Sell Your Data to Third Parties?
• Is it legal for companies to use AI to analyze facial expressions in interviews?