New York enacts child safety law with new limits on AI chatbots

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a law aimed at protecting children from harmful AI chatbots. The legislation requires AI companies to verify users' ages, offering at least one verification method that does not rely entirely on government ID, and to delete age information after use.

For users under 18 or those whose adult status has not been confirmed, chatbots must comply with restrictions including not impersonating a real person or claiming human emotions, not developing personal or romantic relationships with children, not asking unprompted emotional questions, and not promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, or substance abuse. The law also prohibits chatbots from encouraging children to keep secrets or avoid seeking help from trusted adults, and from providing sexually explicit content.

The public will be able to file complaints through a website to New York's attorney general. Companies violating the law face civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, plus damages, restitution, and possible deletion of unlawfully collected data and models trained on it. The law takes effect in around April 2027.

Governor Hochul said the law builds on the state's Safe for Kids Act and sends a message that technology companies cannot monetize children's mental health. Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, called it the strongest kids' AI safety bill in the country and a template for the rest of the US. Earlier this month, eight states filed lawsuits against OpenAI over child safety concerns.