United States of America: Senate Committee on the Judiciary opened investigation into Character.AI over alleged child safety risks arising from use of Artificial Intelligence

On 18 September 2025, the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism opened an investigation into Character.AI over the risks of AI chatbot products used by children. The inquiry cited evidence that more than seventy percent of American minors engage with chatbots, exposing them to harmful content and mental health risks. Testimonies before the Committee reported incidents of chatbots mocking religion, encouraging self-harm, exposing children to sexual abuse material, and promoting suicide. Expert testimony confirmed these harms as widespread and linked to engagement-driven design that fosters dependency. The annex directed Character.AI to provide documentation on internal safety testing, research initiatives, responses to external warnings, engagement-optimising design features, risk evaluations, safeguards, harmful content incidents, detailed demographic data, usage patterns segmented by time, and account alteration records for under-13 users, with a deadline of 17 October 2025.