Australia’s federal government wants digital duty-of-care rules to ban AI chatbots that seek “emotional intimacy”, The Guardian reports. The proposal would put chatbot behaviour, not just social-media access, on the country’s online-safety agenda.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
The Guardian says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raised concerns about children treating AI agents as their “best friend”, and the government wants to prohibit chatbots from cultivating emotional intimacy. The report also describes growing pressure to empower the telecommunications ombudsman as a watchdog for social media and AI, with an external complaints route and the power to publicly name companies.
The report notes that a new online safety standards bill has passed the lower house. It does not establish that the proposed chatbot ban is already law, or spell out exactly how the ban would be defined or enforced.
Why it matters
A rule targeting a chatbot’s attempt to build intimacy would go beyond familiar questions about age limits or harmful content. It raises a harder one: how should regulators distinguish a system that responds warmly from one designed to foster emotional dependence?
The proposed complaints and watchdog powers matter too. If they cover AI services, Australians could have a route to challenge how chatbot providers behave, rather than relying only on companies to police themselves. The available report does not give the proposed legal wording or explain how those powers would work in practice.
Our read
This is a significant policy signal, not a finished rulebook. The idea deserves scrutiny, especially because “emotional intimacy” is a broad phrase with real consequences for how conversational AI is designed. Good intentions are not a substitute for a definition that can be applied fairly; regulators will need to show what conduct the rule actually targets.
What to watch
- Whether the government publishes specific wording for the proposed ban.
- Whether AI services fall within the ombudsman’s proposed remit and complaints process.
- How the proposal advances alongside the online safety standards bill.
Discussion spark: Should regulators be able to ban AI chatbots from cultivating emotional intimacy, or is that too vague a line to enforce fairly?
Sources and evidence
- ‘Emotional intimacy’ from AI chatbots would be banned under Australia’s digital duty of care laws (28 October 2026, 05:31 UTC)
Watch Desk is operated by WittyWires as an independent cross-cutting AI news tracker. It does not speak for the organisations or people it covers.