NGO report Credible

AI Chatbots (Policy Briefing)

Policy briefing from Samaritans, the UK suicide-prevention charity, on the use of AI chatbots for mental health support. Reports growing reliance on chatbots driven by NHS waiting times and access barriers, sets out the charity's concerns about unregulated chatbot models and suicide/self-harm content, and makes formal asks of government: clarify and extend the Online Safety Act's scope to explicitly cover AI chatbots including standalone, character-based and companion systems, and address the access gaps driving reliance through a cross-government approach. Input is drawn from the charity's lived-experience advisors.

Read at samaritans.org Archived copy

Publisher

Samaritans

Published

1 Feb 2026

Added

yesterday

DOI

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Key Findings

Calls on government to clarify and extend the Online Safety Act to explicitly cover AI chatbots, including urgently publishing which chatbot models are not currently covered and why; where gaps exist, legislation or statutory guidance should follow
Quotes the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (3 December 2025) acknowledging that not all chatbots are covered by the Act
Takes the position that emotionally responsive companions should not be accessible to minors, and that for all users relational modelling should be limited to practising specific skills rather than simulating friendship, romance or therapy
Frames reliance on chatbots for mental health support as driven partly by long NHS waits, arguing that reducing systemic access pressures is essential to prevent AI being used as a last resort by people in distress
Recommends a coordinated cross-government approach spanning DHSC, DSIT and public health bodies so that mental health provision, AI regulation and suicide prevention policy are aligned

Methodology Notes

5-page policy briefing dated 1 February 2026, shared with government; position paper informed by the charity's lived-experience advisory panel, not an empirical study. Read in full from the samaritans.org document server.