H.R. 9948 — Addictive Design Act of 2026

This section states findings that 12 percent of teenagers used AI chatbots for mental health support in 2025, that such chatbots are not designed for youth in crisis and often include addictive features to build emotional relationships, that 11 states enacted related laws in 2025 and 2026, and that restricting youth access to those features is the only effective means to address resulting mental health and public safety risks.

This section establishes the Task Force Addressing the Impact of Addictive Design Features on Youth Mental Health within 60 days of enactment. The task force, composed of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the NIST Director, the FTC Chairman, the Assistant Secretary for Health, SAMHSA officials, and specified academic researchers and licensed mental health professionals, must review research on AI chatbots’ effects on youth mental health and issue public recommendations on minimizing risks such as unhealthy emotional attachment and addiction. It must submit a report to Congress within one year after completion of related research projects and terminate 60 days after submission.

This section establishes a research grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services for institutions of higher education to study the effects of AI chatbots on youth mental health, subject to data security requirements, and an outreach grant program for 501(c)(3) organizations and community-based entities to train parents, guardians, and teachers on identifying related mental health risks including addiction and unhealthy attachment. It requires reports to Congress on all grant recipients and amounts, and authorizes appropriations of $3 million for research grants and $5 million for outreach grants for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2032.

This section requires covered entities to provide institutes of higher education with access to requested data and information for research projects under section 4(a), after first removing all identifiable information. It imposes a civil penalty of up to $10,000,000 per violation, treating each failure to comply with a request for a single project as one violation, and authorizes the Attorney General to seek injunctive relief in district court.

This section prohibits a covered entity from making available to youth an AI chatbot with addictive design features. It limits any data collected through age verification for compliance purposes to only what is strictly necessary to determine user age and requires deletion of such data within 24 hours. The Attorney General shall assess a civil penalty of $5,000 per violation and may seek injunctive relief in U.S. district court.

This section defines terms for the Act, including addictive design features of an AI chatbot (e.g., showing typing bubbles, providing avatars, storing personal information from prior conversations, or maintaining a conversation longer than 2 hours), an AI chatbot as a generative system engaging users in non-scripted interactive text, audio, or visual conversations, a covered entity as a person making an AI chatbot available to youth, youth as individuals under age 18 residing in the United States, and covered teachers employed by elementary, middle, or high schools.