Child safety vs privacy: AI's age verification dilemma
July 30, 2026
When Megan Garcia told lawmakers about how her 14-year-old son died by suicide after months of conversations with a chatbot from Character. Al, one of her main requests might have been, on the face of it, the simplest — restrict access for those under a certain age.
"I don't think that chatbot technology in its current form is safe for children," she told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee in September. "So if they could stop children from going on their platforms, don't make it 12+ in your app store: have proper age verification so that children under the age of 18 do not have access to chatbots. I think that would save a lot of lives and save families from devastation."
