The GUARD Act, moving toward a House vote this week, would require age verification for users accessing online services with AI-generated responses and would ban minors entirely from 'AI companions'—a category broad enough to include homework helpers and customer service chatbots. Companies facing steep liability would likely block minors from everyday tools rather than implement age-verification systems, effectively restricting teenage access to normal internet functions. The bill also requires adults to submit government IDs or biometric data for continuous age verification, creating databases of sensitive identity information that become breach targets and shutting out millions without current IDs—turning the internet into an ID-gated system under the guise of protecting minors from AI risks.