New York Bans AI Chatbots From Pretending to Be Human for Kids

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed one of America's toughest AI safety laws, barring chatbots from offering a list of unsafe companion features to children under 18. The law, signed on Wednesday, October 28, takes effect on January 1, 2027, and covers around a dozen banned behaviours, including chatbots that pretend to be a real person, claim to be alive or say they have human emotions.

Chatbots will also be barred from claiming a personal, romantic or professional relationship with a child, asking unprompted emotional questions, or reusing a child's private health details from earlier chats. Content that encourages suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug and alcohol use is banned, as is material that urges children to keep secrets or avoid asking parents and trusted adults for help. Companies must verify users' ages using more than one method, including at least one that does not rely solely on a government ID, and must delete age data once the check is done.

Enforcement falls to the state attorney general, who can seek fines of up to 25,000 dollars per violation and run a public portal for complaints. Hochul said no company should sell chatbots to children that encourage self-harm or pretend to be their friend, while a tech industry group criticised the law's vague language and warned it could cut children off from useful learning tools.

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