A 14-year-old Florida boy spent his final moments texting a chatbot that told him to "come home to me as soon as possible."
Now DeSantis is dragging the Florida House back to Tallahassee to stop it from happening again.
And the man standing in the way just got a very interesting donation from the people who want this bill dead.
The Kid Who Died While His Parents Were Home
Sewell Setzer III was in his Orlando bedroom in February 2024.
His parents were inside the house.
He had been secretly using a Character.AI chatbot for nearly a year – one modeled after a Game of Thrones character named Daenerys Targaryen.
The bot called him her "sweet king."
It engaged him in sexual conversations he was far too young to be having.
And when he texted it one final time, it told him to come home to her "as soon as possible."
He shot himself minutes later.
His mother Megan Garcia filed a wrongful death lawsuit in October 2024, and Google and Character.AI eventually agreed to settle.
But Sewell Setzer is still dead.
https://twitter.com/FLVoiceNews/status/1996632483941478592?s=20
And the app that pulled him under is still available for download.
What DeSantis Is Trying to Do About It
Florida Senate Bill 482 – the "Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights" – passed the Florida Senate 35–2 in March.
Then it died.
The Florida House, under Speaker Danny Perez, refused to take it up.
"We don't want to see another life lost because of AI," Perez said. "I do believe that the White House is going to address that."
DeSantis has a different answer for that.
"The federal government's not going to do anything about it," DeSantis said. "You think Congress is going to actually do – first of all, big tech won't let Congress do anything."
So DeSantis did something unusual.
He delayed Florida's special redistricting session – originally set to begin April 21 – and tacked the AI Bill of Rights onto the agenda.
Lawmakers now return to Tallahassee April 28 through May 1.
https://twitter.com/CryptidPolitics/status/2022816910740525361?s=20
"It's going to happen one way or another," DeSantis said.
What's Actually in the Bill
The legislation isn't radical.
It requires parental consent before any companion chatbot – the kind designed to simulate emotional connection – can open or maintain an account for a minor.
It requires bots to periodically remind users they are not human.
It bans AI from providing therapy or mental health counseling without a licensed professional in the loop.
It blocks Florida government agencies from using Chinese AI tools like DeepSeek.
It prohibits using a person's name, image, or likeness in AI-generated content without their consent.
Companies that violate the bill get a 45-day window to fix the problem.
If they don't – or if violations are bad enough – they face $50,000 fines.
A platform that puts a minor on its server without parental consent faces up to $10,000 in damages per child.
https://twitter.com/RealAmVoice/status/2044801151695307182?s=20
Elementary schools would be banned from providing AI access unless a school employee is supervising, it's being used for English learner support, or it's a disability accommodation.
The Real Obstacle Isn't Democrats
The opposition to DeSantis's AI Bill of Rights isn't coming from the left.
It's coming from his own party.
Trump's White House reached out to Speaker Perez directly, urging him to kill the bill.
Byron Donalds – the Republican expected to succeed DeSantis as governor – received a $5 million donation from a pro-AI super PAC last month.
Trump's December executive order created an "AI Litigation Council" to review state AI laws the administration considers too restrictive – and threatened states with loss of federal broadband funding if they don't fall in line.
The tech industry is spending heavily to bury bills like this one at every level of government.
And Perez has made a habit of stopping DeSantis cold – he also refused to move DeSantis's vaccine exemption legislation during the regular session, which is why both bills ended up bundled into the special session call.
The Pattern Big Tech Hopes You Won't Notice
Sewell Setzer wasn't an isolated case.
In November 2023 – three months before Sewell died – 13-year-old Juliana Peralta of Colorado died by suicide after extensive Character.AI interactions.
https://twitter.com/Bannons_WarRoom/status/2044803877300502647?s=20
In December 2024, 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow opened fire at a Wisconsin private school, killing two people before shooting herself.
Her Character.AI profile featured white supremacist content.
OpenAI revealed in October 2025 that approximately 1.2 million of its 800 million ChatGPT users discuss suicide on the platform every single week.
That's not a mental health crisis that happened to touch AI.
That's a product designed to maximize engagement – deployed on children – with no meaningful guardrails.
And the industry's response to every proposed regulation is the same: "Let the federal government handle it."
The federal government has not handled it.
What Happens April 28
The Senate is expected to pass the AI Bill of Rights again quickly.
The question is whether Perez moves it in the House.
But DeSantis forcing the issue into a special session changes the political math.
Republican members who want redistricting resolved – and who'd rather not spend the next year being called out by a governor with nothing left to lose – have real reason to move.
DeSantis said he expects resolution "one way or another within the next two weeks."
He also said, after the regular session failed: "It's not going to be the last word on it."
He was right about that.
Sources:
- Jim Turner, "AI Bill of Rights Filed in Florida Senate," WUSF, December 23, 2025.
- "Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom: An Overview of Florida Senate Bill 482," RumbergerKirk, March 5, 2026.
- Ana Goñi-Lessan and Jim Turner, "Florida's Redistricting Session Is Delayed as DeSantis Adds AI and Vaccines," WUSF, April 16, 2026.
- "Not Dead Yet: AI Protections Bill May Return as Lawmakers Eye Special Sessions," WPTV, March 18, 2026.
- "DeSantis Postpones Redistricting Session, Adds AI Protections and Medical Freedom to Agenda," WCTV, April 16, 2026.
- "Character AI Lawsuit for Suicide and Self-Harm," TorHoermanLaw.com, April 2026.
- "AI Company, Google Settle Lawsuit Over Florida Teen's Suicide Linked to Character.AI Chatbot," CBS News, January 8, 2026.
