The chatbot in the bedroom

States spent 2026 writing laws about companion chatbots and kids. Idaho, Oregon, and Washington already require operators to stop bots from claiming they are human and from starting sexual talk with minors. The Senate has a bill that would put parents in charge of family accounts. California already requires crisis prompts and “this is not a person” reminders.

Law is slow. Your house is not. You do not need a statute to ask one question tonight: which apps on the kids’ phones talk back like a friend?

If you cannot name them, you are already behind. Sit with the child and open the list together. Delete the ones that role play romance or stay up all night. Keep the ones you can see. If the app has no parent view, it does not belong on a minor’s phone.

This is not panic. It is the same work as knowing who is in the house after dark.