Husted introduces bill to protect kids from sexually explicit AI chatbots

“ Children will not be safe as long as these tools exist, which is why I am co-leading the effort to establish strong penalties for anyone who creates or operates these destructive chatbots.” WASHINGTON – Sens. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced the Stopping Illegal Minor Simulations (SIMS) Act. This bill would establish criminal and civil penalties for any person who owns or operates a chatbot designed to simulate a child and engage in sexually explicit conversations or conduct. Currently, there are villains using chatbots programmed to emulate minors to have sexually explicit conversations. The SIMS Act would make it criminal for someone to design a chatbot capable of emulating a child engaging in sexual acts. “Inventions can be used both for good and bad, and we need to ensure we are protecting our kids from dangerous misuse of AI by people who would do them harm. Bad actors are using things like chatbots impersonating minors to engage in sexually explicit interactions. Children will not be safe as long as these tools exist, which is why I am co-leading the effort to establish strong penalties for anyone who creates or operates these destructive chatbots,” said Husted. “AI has the potential to do incredible good and incredible bad. It’s up to Congress to put up strong guardrails to stop the bad and encourage the good. There should not be a technology that we allow to be used to harm our children, and AI is no exception. This bipartisan bill will stop dangerous and disturbing explicit conversations between children and AI chat bots,” said Coons. “AI bots mimicking children corrupt the user and feed into a pathology that increases the likelihood that real children will be exploited and abused. This is sick and this is wrong,” said Cassidy. “If Congress can’t come together and ban AI companies from supercharging the production of child pornography, then there is really nothing left of our country’s moral fabric. Since these companies will clearly stop at nothing to boost their bottom line, Congress has to step in and make sure kids are safe from depraved child pornography chatbot,” said Murphy. This bill builds on Husted’s work to protect kids online. In March 2026, Husted introduced Sammy’s Law . This bipartisan bill would empower parents to protect their children on social media platforms by providing them the right to know if their children are engaging in dangerous or risky interactions. In January 2026, Husted introduced the bipartisan No Fentanyl on Social Media Act. The bill would direct the FTC to report to Congress on minors’ access to fentanyl through social media, with recommendations to address this growing threat. In December 2025, Husted joined the Kids Online Safety Act to protect minors’ personal data on online platforms and implement safety tools for parents and minors to target any harmful online content for children. In September 2025, Husted introduced the Children Harmed by AI Technology (CHAT) Act. The bill would require owners and operators of artificial intelligence companion chatbots to bar minors from accessing sexually explicit content and implement age verification and safety measures to ensure that minors cannot access chatbots without consent from their parents. The full text of the bill is available here .