Virginia SB 796: Artificial Intelligence Companion Chatbots and Minors Act; established, enforcement, civil penalty.

Bill Text

2026 SESSION

INTRODUCED

26105447D

SENATE BILL NO. 796

Offered January 23, 2026

A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Title 59.1 a chapter numbered 60, consisting of sections numbered 59.1-614 through 59.1-618, relating to Artificial Intelligence Companion Chatbots and Minors Act established; enforcement; civil penalties; individual action.

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Patrons—Durant, Ebbin, Head and VanValkenburg

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Referred to Committee on General Laws and Technology

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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding in Title 59.1 a chapter numbered 60, consisting of sections numbered 59.1-614 through 59.1-618 as follows:

CHAPTER 60.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPANION CHATBOTS AND MINORS ACT.

§ 59.1-614. Definitions.

For the purpose of this chapter, unless the context requires a different meaning:

"Actual knowledge" means direct knowledge obtained by the operator through a report, communication, internal investigation, or other credible information. "Actual knowledge" does not include constructive knowledge.

"Age verification data" means personal information collected solely to conduct age verification.

"Chatbot" means any artificial intelligence, algorithmic, or automated system that (i) produces new expressive content or responses not fully predetermined by the developer or operator of the service or application and (ii) accepts open-ended natural-language or multimodal user input and produces adaptive or context-responsive output.

"Companion chatbot" means a chatbot that is designed or marketed to encourage a user to form an ongoing personal relationship with the chatbot, including as a friend, romantic partner, or source of emotional support, including by presenting itself as a character or persona. "Companion chatbot" does not include any system that is designed and marketed for providing efficiency improvements, technical assistance, information retrieval, task completion, or customer service.

"Covered harm" means any of the following harms suffered by a user: death, a suicide attempt, self-harm requiring medical attention, a psychiatric emergency resulting in urgent medical treatment, or a serious physical injury that requires medical attention.

"Covered incident" means an incident in which a user suffered a covered harm arising from interactions with a chatbot.

"Emotional dependence" means a pattern of user behavior or statements indicating that the user relies on a chatbot as a primary source of emotional support or social connection, such as a user expressing that the chatbot is their primary source of emotional support, a user expressing distress at the prospect of losing access to the chatbot, or patterns of use suggesting the user is substituting the chatbot for human relationships.

"Explicit content" means content that meets any of the following:

1. Any description or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse, as those terms are defined in § 18.2-390, when such content is obscene, as defined in § 18.2-372.

2. Content that provides specific instructions for, or that glorifies or promotes, suicide or self-injury; or

3. Graphic depictions of extreme violence that lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.

"Minor" means an individual younger than 18 years of age.

"Monthly active user" means a unique user who interacts with a chatbot at least once during a 30-day period, as measured using the operator's ordinary business records.

"Operator" means any person or entity that owns, controls, offers, makes available, or substantially determines how a chatbot is designed, marketed, or operated for users in the Commonwealth, including a person deploying a chatbot built on another party's chatbot.

"Reasonable age verification" includes methods authenticated to relate to the individual, such as a state-issued ID or driver license; government digital identification; military ID; bank account verification; or any other commercially reasonable means or method, including third-party verifiers that can reliably and accurately independently verify a user is an adult.

"User" means an individual who interacts with a chatbot.

"Widely used chatbot" means a chatbot that (i) has one million or more monthly active users worldwide and (ii) is reasonably likely to be accessed by minors in the Commonwealth. "Widely used chatbot" does not include a chatbot that is (a) not offered to the general public, such as internal workplace tools, clinician-supervised clinical tools, or university research systems or (b) used by a business entity solely for customer service or to strictly provide users with information about available commercial services or products provided by that entity, customer service account information, or other information strictly related to its customer service.

§ 59.1-615. Companion chatbots.

A. Prior to allowing any user to access