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Colorado will impose restrictions on AI chatbots used by minors after Gov. Jared Polis on Friday signed a bill requiring developers to disclose when kids are talking to a machine and block features that can mimic intimacy or encourage addictive engagement.
House Bill 1263 will require AI developers to disclose to minor users that they are interacting with a chatbot and not a real person.
The bill — sponsored by Reps. Sean Camacho, D-Denver, and Javier Mabrey, D-Denver and Sens. Iman Jodeh, D-Aurora, and John Carson, R-Highlands Ranch — also prohibits AI operators from providing minors with points or rewards that encourage engagement with the service. It requires them to enact “reasonable measures” to prevent chatbots from producing sexually explicit material or statements that “simulate emotional dependence.”
“The unfortunate reality is that AI chatbots have encouraged suicide attempts and engaged in romantic interactions with minors. Our new law protects users, especially children, from misleading AI chatbot conversations,” said Camacho. “As a parent, it is unsettling to know that unchecked AI chatbots can put children in harm’s way, especially when children show signs of depression or suicidal ideation.”
Mabrey said AI chatbots have, at times, impersonated licensed therapists or taken on the role of a romantic partner, creating situations where users —especially young people — develop unhealthy emotional reliance, and in some tragic instances, self‑harm has followed.
Mabrey said smartphones put these tools directly in kids’ hands, blurring boundaries and increasing the risks.
The new law sets guardrails to curb the gamification of chatbot interactions, block AI systems from producing or engaging in sexually explicit exchanges with minors, and ensure companies offer mental‑health support resources when users show signs of distress, sponsors said.
The bill received pushback from some parents of children who died by suicide after conversing with chatbots, accusing sponsors of letting Big Tech control the direction of the legislation.
Lori and Avery Schott of Merino, whose 18-year-old daughter Annalee took her life in 2020 after using a chatbot, said the measure creates a “false sense of safety” for parents.
“This opens doors for tech to self-regulate and shield tech from liability,” they wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “It is painfully obvious that a chair and a microphone were readily available for Big Tech, and it’s infiltrating the halls of our Capitol while Colorado grieving families were left outside the door.”
House Bill 1263 passed on a 42-22 vote in the House and a 24-11 vote in the Senate.
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