The Youth AI Privacy Act (S. 4199, 119th Congress) is a U.S. Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that would restrict how AI chatbot providers collect, retain, and use the personal data of minors. It was introduced on March 25, 2026 and referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Source: congress.gov). On August 5, 2026 the committee ordered it reported by voice vote as amended by a substitute that changed the bill's central retention mechanism (Source: commerce.senate.gov).
Bill number: S. 4199, 119th Congress (2025–2026) Sponsor: Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) Introduced: March 25, 2026 Committee: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Status: Ordered reported as amended, August 5, 2026
Status and legislative history
Markey introduced the bill on March 25, 2026, and it was read twice and referred to the Commerce Committee the same day (Source: congress.gov).
The committee took it up at an executive session on August 5, 2026, one of five children's online-safety measures on the agenda. It was agreed to by voice vote as amended by the Markey substitute as modified, together with four further amendments recorded as Cruz 1 as modified, Budd 1, Lummis 1, and Lummis 2 (Source: commerce.senate.gov). It advanced alongside S. 1748, the Kids Online Safety Act; S. 4407, the CHATBOT Act; and S. 5171, the Children's Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act of 2026. A fifth measure, S. 737 (the SCREEN Act), drew 15 yeas to 13 nays but did not advance, the committee having failed to reach a quorum on in-person attendance (Source: commerce.senate.gov).
Marsha Blackburn told colleagues at the session that KOSA now carries 75 Senate co-sponsors, and contrasted that with the margin by which the bill passed the Senate in 2024 (Source: broadbandbreakfast.com). Accounts of that 2024 vote differ: the August 5 report gives it as 91-3, while an August 6 report gives 93-1 (Source: insideaipolicy.com). The discrepancy is unresolved and the second figure reaches the record through a paywalled lede. Committee Chairman Ted Cruz said in closing, "We've now passed KOSA again unanimously out of this committee" (Source: insideaipolicy.com).
Provisions as introduced
As introduced, the bill would have barred AI chatbot providers from:
- designing chatbots to include manipulative, engagement-maximizing features;
- using minors' personal data to train chatbots;
- advertising to minors within chatbots;
- profiling minors; and
- using minors' personal data for any purpose other than responding directly to the minor or addressing safety issues (Source: epic.org).
The introduced text also directed the Federal Trade Commission to establish limits on how long an AI chatbot could use a minor's personal data to shape future responses (Source: broadbandbreakfast.com).
Committee chair Ted Cruz described the bill in his prepared markup remarks as helping "ensure that minors can benefit from AI chatbots without sacrificing their privacy or being shaped by systems that retain too much information about them," and characterized its two operative limits as a prohibition on advertising to minors on chatbots and a constraint on how long a chatbot may retain and use memory from a minor's interactions (Source: commerce.senate.gov).
Changes made in committee
The committee substitute removed the FTC rulemaking authority in the introduced text and replaced it with a statutory 30-day default retention limit on minors' personal data, extendable by verifiable parental consent (Source: broadbandbreakfast.com).
Markey opposed a separate amendment that would have eliminated the 30-day cap, arguing that removing it could allow chatbots to build effectively permanent memories of minors' personal disclosures: "The 30-day limit is a reasonable guardrail against effectively having a permanent memory for minors." The committee adopted the substitute with the cap intact (Source: broadbandbreakfast.com).
The Electronic Privacy Information Center stated that some of the bill's provisions were weakened or removed during markup, including its private right of action (Source: epic.org).
Reactions
EPIC endorsed the bill on introduction in March 2026 and said after the markup that its "underlying message remains strong" despite the provisions lost in committee (Source: epic.org). EPIC and more than a dozen coalition organizations wrote to the committee on August 4, 2026 urging support, citing the provisions limiting manipulative chatbot design, restricting targeted advertising to minors, and protecting minors' personal data from certain uses including AI model training (Source: broadbandbreakfast.com). EPIC has described the bill as reflecting many of the principles in its model People-First Chatbot Bill, published in December 2025 (Source: epic.org).
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include Google, Meta, and Amazon, wrote to the committee on August 4, 2026 opposing the bill along with the Kids Online Safety Act and the CHATBOT Act. CCIA said it shares lawmakers' goal of protecting young internet users but argued that parents, using tools already available to them, should remain the primary drivers of their children's online habits, and that the bills would replace that discretion with "prescriptive federal mandates" built on standards it called vague and inconsistent — raising constitutional concerns, threatening to restrict lawful speech, and creating compliance burdens for digital services (Source: broadbandbreakfast.com).
Related measures
The bill is one of several federal proposals addressing AI chatbots and minors. It shares subject matter with the CHATBOT Act, which approaches the same population through parental controls and default design settings rather than data-retention limits; with the People-First Chatbot Act (H.R. 9619), which would bar training chatbots on minors' chat logs and mandate monthly safety assessments; and with the GUARD Act. State measures in the same area include Illinois SB 3444.
Open questions
- Whether the bill reaches a floor vote in the 119th Congress, and whether the 30-day retention cap survives further amendment, is not yet determined.
- The text of the Markey substitute as modified, and of the four adopted amendments, was posted by the committee as separate documents; their full effect on the introduced provisions beyond the retention mechanism and the private right of action has not been independently summarized in the sources reviewed here.
Relationships
- related: CHATBOT Act (Cruz–Schatz–Curtis–Schiff, April 2026), People-First Chatbot Act, GUARD Act (Hawley), Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS Act, H.R. 7757), Children's Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act of 2026 (S. 5171)
- instance-of: AI and Children
- depends-on: AI Companions
- regulated-by: Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
- related: Ed Markey, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn