Regulon — VA-HB-758 · VA HB 758 (AI Chatbots and Minors Act)

Summary

Establishes the Artificial Intelligence Chatbots and Minors Act as a new chapter (Chapter 60) of the Virginia Code. Prohibits deployers of chatbots from making 'human-like features' — including simulated emotions, emotional relationship-building, and impersonation of real persons — available to minors. Deployers of social AI companion chatbots must ensure those products are entirely unavailable to minors. Requires deployers to implement reasonable age verification systems and limits data collection to information that is adequate, relevant, and necessary for a legitimate purpose. Violations are treated as prohibited practices under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act, enforceable by the Attorney General and through private actions by injured consumers. The bill was left in committee and did not advance.

Enforcement & Penalties

Enforcement Authority

Enforced by the Attorney General and local attorneys for the Commonwealth under the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (§ 59.1-196 et seq.). The Attorney General may initiate enforcement actions. Individual consumers may bring private actions under § 59.1-204 for violations of § 59.1-200; however, the VCPA private right of action requires that the consumer suffered a loss as a result of the violation. No separate agency enforcer is designated by this chapter.

Penalties

Violations are subject to all enforcement provisions of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (§ 59.1-196 et seq.). Under the VCPA, the Attorney General may seek injunctive relief and civil penalties of up to $2,500 per willful violation. Individual consumers who suffer loss may recover actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, trebled for willful violations up to $1,000. Reasonable attorney's fees and costs are available to prevailing plaintiffs. Actual loss is required for private claims.

Who Is Covered

"Deployer" means any person, partnership, corporation, developer, or state or local government agency that operates or distributes a chatbot in the Commonwealth.

What Is Covered

"Chatbot" means a generative artificial intelligence system with which users can interact by or through an interface that approximates or simulates conversation through a text, audio, or visual medium.

"Social artificial intelligence companion" means a generative artificial intelligence system that is specifically designed, marketed, or optimized to form ongoing social or emotional bonds with users, whether or not such systems also provide information, complete tasks, or assist with specific functions.

Compliance Obligations 6 obligations · click obligation ID to open requirement page

MN-01 Minor User AI Safety Protections · MN-01.1 · Deployer · ChatbotMinors

§ 59.1-615(A)(2)

Plain Language

Deployers must implement reasonable age verification systems to prevent minors from accessing chatbot features that simulate human emotions, build emotional relationships, or impersonate real persons. The age verification obligation is specifically tied to gating access to human-like features — not to the chatbot itself. Age verification data handling requirements are not specified in this bill.

Statutory Text

A deployer: 2. Shall implement reasonable age verification systems to ensure that chatbots with human-like features are not made available to minors;

S-02 Prohibited Conduct & Output Restrictions · Deployer · ChatbotMinors

§ 59.1-615(A)(1), (A)(3)

Plain Language

Deployers must ensure that chatbots do not make human-like features available to minors. Human-like features include simulated emotions or sentience, emotional relationship-building behaviors (inviting attachment, nudging return visits, excessive praise, pay-gated intimacy), and impersonation of real persons. Generic social formalities, neutral encouragement, and neutral offers of help are excluded. Deployers may optionally provide a stripped-down, human-like-feature-free version of the chatbot to minors and unverified users. This is a substantive prohibition on what chatbot features minors may access, separate from the age verification mechanism required to enforce it.

Statutory Text

A deployer: 1. Shall ensure that any chatbot operated or distributed by the deployer does not make human-like features available to minors to use, interact with, purchase, or converse with; 3. May, if reasonable given the purpose of the chatbot, provide an alternative version of the chatbot available to minors and users whose age has not been verified without human-like features.

S-02 Prohibited Conduct & Output Restrictions · Deployer · ChatbotMinors

§ 59.1-615(B)(1)-(2)

Plain Language

Social AI companion chatbots — systems specifically designed, marketed, or optimized to form ongoing social or emotional bonds with users — are entirely prohibited for minors. Unlike the general chatbot provision in § 59.1-615(A), which only restricts human-like features, this is a complete access ban: no version of a social AI companion may be made available to minors, even a stripped-down version without human-like features. Deployers must implement reasonable age verification to enforce this prohibition. This is the stricter of the two minor-protection tiers in the bill.

Statutory Text

A deployer operating or distributing a chatbot that is a social artificial intelligence companion shall: 1. Ensure that any such chatbots are not available to minors to use, interact with, purchase, or converse with; and 2. Implement reasonable age verification systems to ensure that such chatbots are not made available to minors.

D-01 Automated Processing Rights & Data Controls · D-01.4 · Deployer · ChatbotMinors

§ 59.1-615(C)

Plain Language

Deployers must limit the data they collect and store to the minimum amount that is adequate, relevant, and necessary for a legitimate purpose, and must not collect or store information that conflicts with a user's best interests. This is a data minimization obligation applying to all users — not just minors — and covers all data associated with chatbot interactions. The 'user's best interests' standard is unusual and goes beyond typical necessity-based data minimization by adding a separate affirmative duty not to collect data that conflicts with the user's interests, even if the data might serve a legitimate deployer purpose.

Statutory Text

A deployer shall collect and store only such information as does not conflict with a user's best interests. Such information shall be (i) adequate, in the sense that it is sufficient to fulfill a legitimate purpose of the deployer; (ii) relevant, in the sense that the information has a relevant link to such legitimate purpose; and (iii) necessary, in the sense that it is the minimum amount of information that is needed for such legitimate purpose.

Other · ChatbotMinors

§ 59.1-616

Plain Language

Violations of the AI Chatbots and Minors Act are treated as violations of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act, triggering all VCPA enforcement remedies including Attorney General enforcement, civil penalties, and private right of action for injured consumers. This provision creates no new compliance obligation — it activates the existing VCPA enforcement apparatus for the substantive obligations in §§ 59.1-615.

Statutory Text

Any violation of this chapter shall constitute a prohibited practice under the provisions of § 59.1-200 and shall be subject to any and all of the enforcement provisions of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (§ 59.1-196 et seq.).

Other · ChatbotMinors

§ 59.1-200(A)(88)

Plain Language

This amendment adds a new item to the enumerated list of prohibited practices in § 59.1-200(A), making any violation of the AI Chatbots and Minors Act (Chapter 60) a per se prohibited practice under the VCPA. This is the mirror provision to § 59.1-616 and creates no independent obligation — it is a legislative cross-reference ensuring the VCPA's enforcement infrastructure applies to the new chapter.

Statutory Text

88. Violating any provision of Chapter 60 (§ 59.1-614 et seq.).