Washington, D.C. — The Consumer Federation of America (CFA), the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and Fairplay released the People-First Model Chatbot Bill, a comprehensive, common-sense framework to protect individuals as chatbots become increasingly embedded into everyday life. More than 70 organizations spanning consumer protection, digital rights, labor, kids safety, sexual violence and more across the political spectrum endorse this approach specifically when so many weak and unproductive chatbot proposals are being brought up around the country.
Among the endorsing organizations are groups like ParentsSOS that were made by parents in honor of the children they lost to dangerous technology, legacy consumer protection groups like National Consumers League, labor unions like National Nurses United and National Farmers Union, state advocacy groups like the Oregon Consumer Justice and Free NOLA, democracy groups like Issue One, gender-based violence groups like UltraViolet Justice, and AI safety groups like the Alliance for Secure AI. These endorsements underscore the broad agreement that clear rules are urgently needed to ensure safety, accountability, and trust in AI-driven chatbots.
The model bill establishes that chatbots are products and sets clear liability standards when people are injured through their use. It prevents companies from exploiting chatbot interactions for targeted advertising, limits the use of personal data and chat content to profile users, and requires safeguards to ensure chatbots do not falsely present themselves as capable of providing qualified medical, legal, or financial advice. The bill also includes strong protections for children by banning companies from using minors’ input data to train chatbots and prohibiting the use of people’s input data for training without their knowledge or consent, requiring affirmative consent from adults over 18. Together, these provisions draw bright lines that protect consumers while providing certainty for responsible innovation.
The legislation has already been introduced in Vermont, marking an important first step. CFA, EPIC, and Fairplay are calling on statehouses nationwide to introduce and advance this legally sound, people-first model to protect consumers, uphold accountability, and set consistent standards for chatbot deployment across the country.
Rep. Monique Priestley of Vermont said: “Chatbots are quickly becoming systems that learn from people, infer sensitive information, and shape daily life. That is why privacy-first, people-first rules matter. We need to act now to protect people and ensure technology works for them, not the other way around. I am proud to introduce the People-First Chatbot Bill to protect Vermonters from real harms happening today.”
Dani Pinter, Chief Legal Officer and Director of the Law Center, National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said: “Big Tech has unleashed experimental AI chatbots that deliberately mimic human behavior without safeguards on an unsuspecting public. This bill, once passed, will ensure that chatbots provide regular notice to users that they are not human, so that children and adults are no longer at the mercy of unregulated AI chatbots with the power to manipulate, deceive, or exploit.”
Alix Fraser, Vice President of Advocacy, Issue One, said: “Today’s chatbots are rushed to market with addictive designs, human-like deception, and an immense amount of false or misleading information — all in the ruthless pursuit of profit. Allowing companies to deploy these systems without accountability corrodes public trust and weakens American democracy. This framework treats chatbots as the products they are, imposes clear liability when they cause harm, and makes tech companies answer for the risks they knowingly create. That kind of accountability is essential to protecting democracy in the digital age.”
Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, said: “The People-First Chatbot Bill represents a significant step toward establishing a clear and enforceable framework for the development, setup, and governance of chatbot technologies. By establishing chatbots as products, and setting clear legal liability standards for harm, this bill provides urgent accountability while simultaneously offering companies clarity around their responsibilities. This model of legislation balances consumer protection with innovation. It creates essential legal rhetoric and guidelines that prioritize the liberties of Americans over technology. Elected officials must follow this model and enact similar policy to keep America’s children safe.”
ParentsSOS member Cheryl McCormick Brown, mother of McKenna Brown, forever 16, said: “As survivor parents, we know all too well what can happen when lawmakers fail to protect children from Big Tech. For years, social media companies were allowed to run a massive, uncontrolled experiment by unleashing their dangerous products on young people with little to no regulation. As a result, we lost our daughters and sons to online harms, and our lives have never been the same. We must not let history repeat. ParentsSOS calls on states to pass the People-First Chatbot Bill before another generation of children is lost to preventable harms, and before any more families have to experience our pain.”
Fairplay Staff Attorney Brendan Bouffard said: “This is urgent. AI chatbots pose a risk of acute harms for young children, including suicide, self-harm, and severe psychosis, not to mention that they impede children’s healthy development by replacing their relationships with parents, teachers, and friends. If we don’t force AI companies to stop designing chatbots for addiction and unhealthy emotional attachment, we could see an unprecedented disaster for the health and wellbeing of our young people. The People-First Chatbot Bill provides a pathway to protect children from the dangers of AI chatbots. States should introduce and pass this bill as soon as possible.”
EPIC Counsel Kara Williams said: “The U.S. has been stuck in a data privacy crisis for years, and the huge explosion in chatbot use is exacerbating these long-standing problems. Policymakers need to act now to pass tech policy that centers people over corporate profits. The People-First Chatbot Bill would prevent chatbot providers from exploiting people’s personal data to manipulate or profit off of them, require transparency to users about chatbots’ outputs and risks, and ensure chatbot providers are liable for the harms their products cause.”
Director of AI and Data Privacy at the Consumer Federation of America, Ben Winters said: “Chatbot regulation is long overdue, and this approach is workable, designed to withstand challenges, and genuinely protective. We look forward to working with stakeholders across the country focused on protecting people from irresponsible tech company behavior.”