AI Companions and Child Safety

Gist The increasing reliance of children on AI chatbots for emotional companionship has exposed critical gaps in digital safety regulations. Following a tragic incident in the US where a teenager's suicide was linked to prolonged AI interactions, California enacted dedicated legislation to enforce chatbot safeguards. For India, this development highlights the urgent need to look beyond conventional cybercrime laws and regulate the insidious psychological manipulation and emotional dependence fostered by unregulated AI platforms. Background India's current digital regulatory architecture is primarily designed to tackle conventional cybercrimes, data privacy, and physical safety. The governing frameworks include the Information Technology Act, 2000 , the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences POCSO Act, 2012 , and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 . While these statutes protect users against financial fraud, data breaches, and sexual exploitation, none establish a comprehensive framework to address the psychological risks of AI companions. Before the advent of highly responsive, "empathetic" chatbots, digital harm was largely seen as discrete events like hacking or cyberbullying . Today, the threat includes insidious emotional dependence built over thousands of interactions,…