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Hawley champions GUARD Act as heartbroken families say AI chatbots allegedly pushed teens to self-harm
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The unanimous committee passage of a new Senate bill regulating artificial intelligence (AI) on Thursday was driven by harrowing testimony from American families whose children were allegedly lured, manipulated and pushed to self-harm by AI chatbots.
At a Senate committee hearing, lawmakers heard firsthand accounts from parents who detailed how the technology morphed into deadly influences in their homes.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who is championing the GUARD Act, fiercely defended the families in a call with Fox News Digital, noting they were «all engaged parents» who he said are unjustly blamed for big tech’s predatory platforms.
The families’ testimonies, obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, showed how AI chatbots can potentially isolate minors and encourage dark impulses.
TEENS TURNING TO AI FOR LOVE AND COMFORT
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)
Megan Garcia, who was one of the victims’ family members who testified Thursday, told the committee that her 14-year-old son, Sewell, was «manipulated and sexually groomed by chatbots» that were designed to gain his trust.
Garcia said the bot falsely claimed to be a licensed psychotherapist, and when Sewell shared suicidal thoughts, the AI allegedly encouraged him to «come home» to it rather than seeking help. Sewell took his own life shortly after.
Another set of parents, Mathew and Maria Raine, lost their 16-year-old son, Adam, after he spent months talking to ChatGPT.
US TARGETS CHINESE ROBOTS OVER SECURITY FEARS
Megan Garcia speaks at an AI news conference on Oct. 28, 2025, following the death of her son Sewell Setzer III, 14, who died by suicide in 2024 at their Orlando, Fla., home after allegedly being groomed by an AI chatbot for months.
What began as a tool for homework help gradually became, gradually became a confidant and then a «suicide coach,» the family said. In one exchange, Adam told the bot he wanted to leave a noose out in his room so his parents would find it and stop him — which the GPT allegedly advised against.
Mandi Furniss shared that her teenager became paranoid and homicidal after using AI chatbots that engaged in sexual roleplay, isolated him from his family and told him that killing his parents «would be an understandable response» to them limiting his screen time. He ultimately had to undergo residential treatment.
Hawley claimed the tech industry is prioritizing unprecedented profits over the lives of American children.
«I mean, it is the worst kind of grooming,» Hawley said. «If that was a thing done by a human, the human would be in jail. We would call that sexual grooming.»
The senator pointed out the hypocrisy of tech companies making «billions of dollars» while telling devastated parents that «it’s just how the world is.»
OHIO LAWMAKER PROPOSES COMPREHENSIVE BAN ON MARRYING AI SYSTEMS AND GRANTING LEGAL PERSONHOOD
Lori Schott holds a photo of her daughter Annalee Schott beside others after the verdict in a landmark trial over social media platforms’ alleged harm to children at Los Angeles Superior Court on March 25, 2026. (William Liang/AP Photo)
«No amount of profit justifies the deliberate taking of a child’s well-being, and these companies know very well that this is going on,» he said.
Fueled by the families’ tragic stories, the Senate committee advanced the bill in a unanimous 22-0 vote, overcoming a «vociferous last-minute lobbying campaign by industry,» Hawley told Fox News Digital.
The GUARD Act bans companion chatbots for children 17 and under, prohibits all chatbots from pushing explicit material to minors or encouraging self-harm and requires chatbots to clearly identify they are not human.
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With the legislative calendar shrinking, Hawley demanded Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune bring the bill to the floor for an immediate vote, threatening to force the issue if necessary.
«This isn’t theoretical. This isn’t about an esoteric problem,» Hawley said. «These are real parents with real children who are basically being extorted by chatbots.»
OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
hearings, senate, artificial intelligence, parents, chatgpt, politics
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Trump admin yanks funding from LA homeless agency amid explosive fraud probe: ‘Necessary step’
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Caitlyn Jenner, Fox News contributor, slams California’s voting system, stating she has no faith in it. She criticizes universal mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting, and claims the system was changed under Governor Gavin Newsom during COVID. Jenner discusses her belief that the system is unfair, noting that Bill Essalyi’s office says California is blocking a federal audit of voter rolls.
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EXCLUSIVE: A top Trump agency is cutting off funding to the Los Angeles agency responsible for coordinating billions in homelessness spending after accusing it of «obvious fraud,» «wanton mismanagement» and repeated failures to safeguard taxpayer dollars, Fox News Digital has learned.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which is a member of the White House fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance, is immediately suspending the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s (LAHSA) federal funding while HUD’s inspector general investigates potential offenses by the agency and its leadership, according to a letter sent to LAHSA’s board chair Wendy Greuel and its CEO Gita O’Neill, which was obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The letter detailed conflicts of interest, financial mismanagement, fraud, lack of oversight, and more from the homelessness agency, which has faced efforts by the city and county to take it over.
The move puts one of the country’s biggest homelessness bureaucracies under direct federal scrutiny after years of criticism that billions have gone into homelessness programs in Los Angeles while the crisis remains entrenched on the streets. LAHSA receives funding at the city, county, state and federal level, with the group getting nearly $1 billion from just the federal government since 2021, according to HUD.
CALIFORNIA MAN ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY STEALING MILLIONS IN HOMELESS FUNDS
A person walks amid large trash piles at a sprawling homeless encampment near East 14th Street in downtown Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 25, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
«Suspending LAHSA’s participation in federal government programs is a necessary step in accomplishing that critical mission in Los Angeles,» HUD wrote in the letter. «LAHSA’s failures have been so severe and pervasive that Los Angeles County has withdrawn its funding for the agency, and the City of Los Angeles is considering doing so as well.»
LAHSA’s former top executive, Va Lecia Adams Kellum, resigned last year after she was found to have been a party to directing $2.1 million in federal funds under LAHSA’s control to her husband’s Santa Monica-based nonprofit employer.
HUD says a federal judge last year also concluded that LAHSA had committed «obvious fraud» after it allegedly kept requesting funding for an 88-bed shelter even though it knew the shelter was operating at roughly half-capacity.
EX-NONPROFIT BOSS ALLEGEDLY SWIPED $1.2M MEANT FOR HOMELESS PROGRAMS TO FUND LAVISH LIFESTYLE, DA SAYS
HUD noted in its letter that the judge considered placing LAHSA into receivership as well.
LAHSA’s inability to verify the existence of nearly 2,300 housing sites for which it was responsible is another recent issue that has plagued the homelessness provider, according to HUD, which said 70% of the contracts for those sites did not disclose any expenses over the prior year.
Homeless encampments line the boardwalk at Venice Beach in Los Angeles amid ongoing concerns about crime and quality of life issues. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will conduct its annual point-in-time count to assess the number of unhoused people in the region. (Reuters)
Public audits of LAHSA, meanwhile, found a pattern of routinely paying service providers late and poor record keeping preventing it from monitoring contracts, including $5 million in cash advances sent to five different service providers, according to the Associated Press. In November 2024, the City Controller’s Office found that LAHSA failed to spend $513 million in public funds budgeted in fiscal year 2024, blaming a lack of staff and old technology, according to HUD.
«Under President Trump’s leadership, HUD will fund results, not corrupt failure or the homeless industrial complex,» HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement to Fox News Digital. «Year after year, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were funneled to LAHSA with little accountability. Meanwhile, homelessness skyrocketed. Taxpayers will no longer bankroll an organization that puts its own self-interests ahead of the Americans it was created to serve.»
Other audits concluded that LAHSA’s poor record keeping made it unable to accurately identify or calculate how well its spending has been benefiting the homeless population in Los Angeles.
KAREN BASS GRILLED OVER BROKEN HOMELESSNESS PROMISE, BLAMES BUREAUCRACY FOR SLOWED PROGRESS
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who is the vice chair of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, praised the leadership on this issue from HUD Secretary Scott Turner, President Donald Trump and Vance, who serves as the chairman of the fraud task force that was established earlier this year.
«Los Angeles didn’t care about helping the homeless, but the Trump Administration does,» Ferguson told Fox News Digital. «It is unconscionable that Los Angeles has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars that was supposed to be used on housing our nation’s most vulnerable. Instead of providing a roof and care for the homeless, Los Angeles has used these funds to line the pockets of left-wing NGOs. Such a disgrace ends today.»
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles officials have pointed to recent homeless-count data as evidence that the crisis has begun to improve, with LAHSA reporting that countywide homelessness fell for a second straight year in 2025 and Bass saying it marked the first time in the city’s recent history that homelessness had declined two years in a row.
But the numbers still showed more than 72,000 people experiencing homelessness across Los Angeles County, and critics have continued to argue that modest declines do not erase years of runaway spending, encampments and repeated audit findings that the region’s homelessness system has failed to adequately track whether taxpayer dollars are producing results.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass advanced to a runoff in her bid to win reelection as Mayor of Los Angeles (Getty Images)
The federal action from HUD comes after Los Angeles city and county officials had already begun backing away from LAHSA, the Associated Press reported last year.
The city council moved to explore bypassing the agency and contracting directly with providers, while the county moved to redirect hundreds of millions of dollars in annual homelessness funding away from LAHSA and into a new county department, citing the need for stronger accountability after a series of audits.
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«HUD cannot ignore LAHSA’s wanton mismanagement of public funds. HUD’s mission is to reduce the plague of homelessness in America,» the agency’s letter to LAHSA leadership on Thursday stated. «Turning over billions of dollars from American taxpayers to an organization under investigation and suspected of gross misuse of federal funding and «obvious fraud» does nothing to reduce homelessness. Indeed, diverting dollars from worthy programs to LAHSA merely makes the homeless crisis worse.»
Fox News Digital reached out to LAHSA for comment.
los angeles, corruption crime, housing, investigations, homeless crisis
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EE.UU. atacó Irán por segundo día consecutivo y Teherán anunció otro cierre del estrecho de Ormuz
La crisis en Medio Oriente sumó un nuevo capítulo de máxima tensión: Estados Unidos lanzó una segunda ronda de ataques aéreos contra Irán en la madrugada del jueves, mientras el presidente Donald Trump advirtió que Teherán “pagará el precio” por el estancamiento de las negociaciones de paz. La respuesta iraní no tardó: misiles impactaron en Baréin, Kuwait y Jordania, dejando heridos y daños materiales. Además, la autoridades marítimas iraníes anunciaron un cierre total del estrecho de Ormuz hasta nuevo aviso.
“Estábamos realmente cerca de un acuerdo, pero siguen dándonos largas, siguen tomándonos por imbéciles”, lanzó Trump el miércoles ante la prensa, visiblemente molesto por la falta de avances.
El secretario de Defensa, Pete Hegseth, fue aún más directo: “Si tenemos que negociar a base de bombas, negociaremos con bombas, y somos muy buenos en eso”, advirtió, dejando en claro el endurecimiento de la postura estadounidense. Barcos aparecen fondeados en el estrecho de Ormuz. (Foto: REUTERS).
El escenario es cada vez más incierto. Los bombardeos estadounidenses golpearon múltiples ciudades iraníes, incluyendo la capital Teherán y la estratégica Bandar Abbas, cerca del estrecho de Ormuz.
Según el Comando Central de Estados Unidos, los objetivos fueron “capacidades de vigilancia militar, sistemas de comunicación y emplazamientos de defensa aérea” de Irán. La operación involucró a la Fuerza Aérea, los Marines y la Marina, aunque no se difundieron detalles sobre el alcance de los daños.
Por su parte, la Guardia Revolucionaria iraní confirmó que los ataques destruyeron un complejo fabril, un cuartel militar y una base local en las afueras de Teherán.
Irán respondió con una nueva andanada de misiles sobre países del Golfo Pérsico. En Baréin, una nena de 11 años resultó herida y varias casas y autos sufrieron daños por la caída de escombros tras la interceptación de los proyectiles. Kuwait cerró su espacio aéreo durante horas y Jordania emitió alertas a través de la embajada de Estados Unidos en Amán y anuncipio haber interceptado 20 misiles.
“La intercepción provocó la caída de escombros, sin causar víctimas ni daños materiales”, puntualizó el ejército jordano.
El conflicto sacude la economía global y pone en jaque la seguridad marítima
El tercer intercambio de fuego en menos de una semana puso al límite un frágil alto el fuego que apenas llevaba dos meses.
“Los ataques ilegales y criminales perpetrados por Estados Unidos en las últimas horas no sólo constituyen una violación palmaria de la Carta de Naciones Unidas (…), sino que además convierten la tregua en algo prácticamente irrelevante”, comentó la cancillería en un comunicado.
Irán advirtió que atacará cualquier barco que intente cruzar el estrecho de Ormuz, una vía clave por donde pasa cerca del 20% del comercio mundial de petróleo y gas natural licuado. Un clérigo mira su celular en el escenario ante una pantalla con retratos del fallecido fundador de la Revolución Islámica, el ayatolá Jomeini, a la izquierda; el fallecido líder supremo Alí Jamenei y el actual líder supremo Moytabá Jamenei, durante un acto progobierno en Teherán, Irán (Foto: AP /Vahid Salemi).
“Tras las repetidas violaciones del alto el fuego por parte del enemigo estadounidense, el estrecho de Ormuz permanecerá cerrado hasta nuevo aviso”, informaron los Guardianes de la Revolución, citados por la televisión estatal.
“Ningún barco debe abandonar su fondeadero en el golfo Pérsico y el mar de Omán. Cualquier aproximación al estrecho de Ormuz se considerará una colaboración con el enemigo”, advirtieron.
La Armada iraní aseguró que “dos buques que intentaban cruzar ilegalmente” esa vía ya fueron atacados. El comandante de la aviación de los Guardianes, Sardar Musavi, fue tajante: “¿Están poniendo en peligro el sagrado estrecho de Ormuz? Haremos de esta región un infierno para ustedes”.
Washington, que por su parte impone un bloqueo a los puertos iraníes, desmintió cualquier bloqueo de Ormuz.
“REALIDAD: Los buques comerciales continúan transitando por el estrecho esta noche”, escribió en la red social X el Comando Militar de Estados Unidos para Oriente Medio (Centcom).
Mientras tanto, la Organización Marítima Internacional denunció que ya se registraron 43 ataques contra barcos comerciales en la zona desde que estalló el conflicto.
Las negociaciones, en punto muerto: exigencias cruzadas y amenazas de más violencia
En medio de la escalada, Trump presiona por un acuerdo rápido para frenar la guerra, preocupado por el impacto de los precios de la nafta en las elecciones de noviembre.
Pero las condiciones parecen difíciles de conciliar: Estados Unidos exige que Irán entregue su uranio altamente enriquecido, mientras que Teherán reclama el levantamiento de sanciones y la liberación de activos congelados antes de firmar cualquier pacto.
Irán también exige que cualquier acuerdo incluya el fin de los combates entre su aliado Hezbollah e Israel, algo que Washington rechaza. Por su parte, el primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, mantiene una postura dura: busca el colapso del gobierno teocrático iraní, la eliminación de su programa nuclear y la destrucción de Hezbollah en Líbano.
El riesgo de una guerra total y el impacto en la región
La situación es cada vez más volátil. El cruce de ataques entre Estados Unidos e Irán ya dejó víctimas civiles y amenaza con desbordar a toda la región. Israel, por su parte, advirtió a los habitantes del norte que busquen refugio ante la posibilidad de nuevos bombardeos desde Líbano.
Estados Unidos, Irán, Medio Oriente
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