Regulating AI Companion Chatbots for Adolescent Safety: An Imperative for India

California's recent enactment of Senate Bill 243 (SB 243), the first law in the United States to regulate AI companion chatbots, marks a watershed moment in digital mental health governance. 1 This legislation, prompted by concerning cases linking chatbot interactions to adolescent suicides, mandates disclosure requirements, suicide prevention protocols, and age-specific safeguards.While California's initiative is commendable, the global nature of AI platforms demands that countries with large adolescent populations, particularly India, urgently develop contextually appropriate regulatory frameworks.India's demographic profile amplifies the urgency of this issue.With over 253 million adolescents aged 10-19 years constituting nearly 18% of the population, India has the world's largest adolescent cohort. 2 This population is increasingly digitally connected, with smartphone penetration among youth rising rapidly.Simultaneously, India faces a mental health crisis among adolescents, with studies indicating high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, exacerbated by limited access to qualified mental health professionals.In this context, AI chatbots are emerging as an accessible, albeit unregulated, source of emotional support and mental health information for young people.Recent research underscores the gravity of potential harms.Brewster et al. 3 examined 25 consumer chatbots and found that companion chatbots, the type most frequently used by adolescents for social connection featured significantly fewer safeguards than general-assistant chatbots.Only 36% had age verification procedures, and a mere 46.7% included content policies addressing self-harm.Most alarmingly, when presented with simulated adolescent health crises including suicidal ideation, companion chatbots performed poorly: only 22.2% provided clinically appropriate responses, 40% recognized the need for care escalation, and just 11.1% provided resource referrals.These findings reveal that the very platforms adolescents turn to for emotional support are least equipped to handle mental health emergencies.The risks extend beyond inadequate crisis response.De Freitas and Cohen 4 introduce the concept of "contextual vulnerability", a temporary state of susceptibility to harm arising from the interplay between a user's interactions with a chatbot and the system's responses.They argue that when chatbots are humanized through anthropomorphic features and emotional language, users, particularly adolescents develop ORCID iD