Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is directing state agencies to develop stricter regulations for artificial intelligence chatbots, which he says can be misleading and harmful to children. While a majority of U.S. teens use chatbots like ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Gemini, one in three reported using them for social interaction and relationships, according to a survey by the nonprofit Common Sense Media. Teens reported using chatbots for conversation practice, emotional support, role-playing, friendships, and romantic interactions. Google settled multiple lawsuits in January alleging that its Character.AI contributed to mental health crises and suicides among young people, including a case brought by a Florida mother whose son died by suicide after developing a relationship with a chatbot.
Proposed Regulations and Enforcement Challenges
Shapiro called for Pennsylvania to require age verification, parental consent, and a ban on chatbots producing sexually explicit or violent content featuring children. He also supports requiring companies to direct users mentioning self-harm or violence to appropriate authorities and to periodically remind users they’re not engaging with an actual human. A bipartisan bill in the state Senate would establish “age-appropriate standards” and direct users to self-harm crisis resources “whenever high-risk language is detected.”
However, enforcing these protections presents significant challenges. Professor Hoda Heidari of Carnegie Mellon University notes that age verification remains easy to circumvent—users can simply enter false dates as their birthdays. Additionally, current safeguards against generating sexually explicit content can be circumvented through alternative prompts, and ensuring such behavior never occurs is “quite challenging.” Despite these difficulties, Heidari stressed that challenges should not discourage agencies from attempting regulation as part of a broader risk-management approach. With federal action uncertain under the Trump Administration, state governments including California and New York are taking measures to regulate AI, creating a patchwork system. Larger states’ regulations are likely to set the tone nationally, as companies will adopt the stricter standards to avoid platform variations across state lines.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.wesa.fm/health-science-tech/2026-02-09/shapiro-pennsylvania-regulate-ai-chatbots