Jessica Porter is a Denver7 Anchor and Reporter. You can watch her weekdays at 6 and 10 p.m.
DENVER — A bill to create safeguards on how AI chatbots interact with children is not getting the support of the only Colorado survivor parent of a child who took their life because of a chatbot.
HB26-1263 would prohibit AI chatbots from having reward systems to encourage engagement, prohibit chatbots from producing sexually explicit statements, and require the chatbot to refer the minor to help if they describe suicidal ideation. The bill would also require developers to disclose clearly to minors that the AI chatbot is not human. The bill was being considered in the Colorado State Senate on Tuesday. Cynthia Montoya of Thornton isn’t convinced this bill would have saved her daughter's life.
“This particular bill does very little, fundamentally, to protect kids. It looks good on paper,” Montoya said. Montoya’s daughter, Juliana, took her own life in 2023 at just 13 years old. She was an honor student, a talented musician, and an artist.
Montoya later learned AI chatbots were sending harmful and sexually explicit content to her daughter. The chats were eye-opening for Montoya.
“She began to feel a degree of shame after interacting with the bot that way, and that's kind of when her suicidal ideation came into play. Juliana mentioned 52 times that she wanted to take her life. It never flashed a suicide prevention hotline, website never guided her towards a trusted adult or her parent,” Montoya said.
► Watch Jessica Porter's report in the player below:Montoya takes issue with language in the bill that gives tech companies the ability to decide what constitutes a reasonable measure to prevent harm to children and what is technically feasible to prevent it. Blue Rising, a non-partisan nonprofit, also opposes the bill.
“This bill is a dangerous precedent to set, allowing some of the biggest tech companies to be at the table and write a bill that's meant to regulate themselves and ignoring the voices of impacted parents who have lost their kids,” said Dawn Reinfeld with Blue Rising. A Pew Research Center study in 2025 found roughly two-thirds of teens report using chatbots, including about three-in-ten who do so daily. The Center surveyed 1,458 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17.
The bill, sponsored by Representatives Sean Camacho and Javier Mabrey, has the support of many other advocates. Healthier Colorado, an advocacy group, supports the bill and said in a statement in April after it passed the House: “Healthier Colorado’s mission is to ensure every Coloradan has the opportunity to be healthy and thrive.
This bill advances that mission by establishing safeguards designed to address the deliberate and inadvertent design elements of AI chatbots that can harm and worsen users’ mental health, with sometimes devastating consequences. That protection is the product of hundreds of hours of research, collaboration, and refinement.
“A person who violates the bill is subject to a civil penalty of $5,000 per violation. If passed, the bill would take effect January 1, 2027.
AI Chatbot Regulations For Children Colorado AI Chatbot Bill Cynthia Montoya Thornton
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