Sen. Jon Husted hopes to regulate minors’ AI use with age verification

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) hopes to regulate student interactions with AI, proposing age verification for AI chatbots.

“AI is an emerging technology that is going to be part of every aspect of our lives and our economy, and we have to prepare students for it, both the good and the bad,” Husted said.

Husted, a Republican, introduced two AI regulatory bills this month, suggesting laws to include AI in K-12 education and to protect minors who use AI chatbots. Husted said his Recommending Artificial Intelligence Standards in Education (RAISE) Act and Children Harmed by AI Technology (CHAT) Act would help America balance the benefits of competitive AI use while mitigating harmful components.

The CHAT Act would require chatbots to bar minor users from accessing sexually explicit material and alert children’s parents if they express suicidal ideations. Husted introduced it just weeks after the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI, alleging the chatbot encouraged the California teen to die by suicide in April.

“Children are not prepared for this. We protect them in the physical world, right? They can’t go into a store, a casino, all of these different things that we say are set aside for adults,” Husted said. “We need to protect them in the digital world as well.”

Husted suggested requiring AI companies to only allow access to chatbots if users make an account, which would be subject to age verification. Husted pointed to Ohio’s new age verification requirement for adult websites as an example of the technology he envisions implementing.

The CHAT Act would require users under 18 to affiliate their accounts with a parent’s, who would be alerted if their child expressed suicidal ideations. Minor chatbot users would also be prevented from accessing sexually explicit content.

“AI is going to be a dominant technology in determining whether we’re going to have economic or military superiority for the future of our nation, and we have to lead,” Husted said.

Husted said leading in AI starts with education, adding China is investing billions in creating AI-fluent students. Husted’s bipartisan RAISE Act would encourage states to introduce standards for AI education by updating the language in the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Husted wants to update the portion of the act responsible for school subject standards to include AI as an option for states.

Husted said the RAISE Act would help encourage all states to introduce AI education, although the bill may be needed less in his home state. This year, Ohio became the first state to mandate K-12 AI policies in schools.

“Frankly, it’s because we were leaders in Ohio when I was here as lieutenant governor that I wanted the other states to get on board in leadership,” Husted said.

Husted’s work with AI began before he was appointed to the Senate in early 2025. Before his appointment to fill Vice President J.D. Vance’s former Senate seat, Husted helped develop early AI education and governance tools for Ohioans as the state’s lieutenant governor.

Among his work at the state level, Husted helped update the legislative code by using AI to identify redundant or conflicting rules. In March, Husted introduced a federal bill to use AI in the same way. Just weeks earlier, Husted introduced bipartisan legislation to ban the use of DeepSeek — an AI platform Husted said has ties to the Chinese Communist Party — on government devices.

In part due to Husted’s work as lieutenant governor, Ohio has become a hotbed for AI companies. Data Center Map places 121 of Ohio’s 191 data centers — which provide the physical infrastructure that allows AI and other servers to exist — within central Ohio.

Data centers require significant energy and water use, and some central Ohio residents are concerned by the demands on resources. Husted said balancing the need for AI with resident wishes is difficult, and said municipalities with concerns about environmental or utility strain do not have to allow data centers to move in.

“We’ve got to embrace both sides of it, the good, and then try to defeat the things that can be uncomfortable or bad,” he said. “And we can’t stick our heads in the sand.”