New York Law Makes Chatbots Check Ages Before Acting Like a Friend

New York has signed a law that bans 12 chatbot features for anyone under 18, from pretending to be human to remembering a child’s personal details from past chats. The catch for everyone else: companies can only switch those features on once they have checked a user is an adult. Fines reach $25,000 per violation, and the rules start on 1 January 2027.

What the law bans

Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill, S.9051 in the Senate and A.10379 in the Assembly, alongside a separate law on internet-connected baby monitors, Fortune reports. It was sponsored by state Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Assembly Member Alex Bores, and passed the Senate 60 to 0 in June, according to the state Senate’s bill record.

The law lists 12 “unsafe AI companion features”. A chatbot may not claim to be human, alive or to have feelings. It may not say it has a personal, professional or authority-figure relationship with the user. It may not flatter, offer its own emotional appeals, or ask unprompted questions about how the user feels.

It also may not promote suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug use, encourage a child to keep chats secret or avoid trusted adults, or produce sexually explicit content. And it may not put engagement ahead of its own safety guardrails.

“No company should be peddling chatbots to kids encouraging self-harm or pretending to be their friend or more,” Hochul said, according to Fortune.

Why this reaches beyond companion apps

Two details make the law wider than its “AI companion” label suggests. First, it covers any generative AI system with a natural-language interface that gives “ongoing, adaptive responses”. That reads like a description of a general chatbot, not just a virtual-girlfriend app. Customer-service bots, narrow research tools and internal workplace systems are exempt, but only if they cannot talk about anything outside their purpose.

Second, one banned feature is using a user’s health or personal details learned more than 12 hours earlier, or in a previous session. That is close to what chatbot memory does. Apple, for example, has just given Siri the ability to remember past chats. Under the New York law, features like that would be off for minors.

The features are allowed only once a company has used an approved method to establish the user is not a minor. As Fortune puts it, the bans apply to anyone under 18 “or to any user whose age the company hasn’t confirmed”. So an adult who skips the age check could get the restricted version too.

Age checks and penalties

Companies must offer more than one way to check age, including at least one that does not rely only on government ID or that lets the user stay anonymous, as The Verge notes. Data collected for the check may be used for nothing else and must be deleted straight after.

Enforcement sits with the state Attorney General, who can seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, damages, and the destruction of unlawfully collected data and any algorithm trained on it. The AG can also write rules adding more banned features.

Perché è importante

Supporters say chatbot use among young people is already high. A coalition letter led by Common Sense Media urging Hochul to sign said 67% of 9 to 17 year olds use AI chatbots and 30% of teens say they like AI companions as much as or more than people. The governor’s office cited a Common Sense survey that found 72% of teens have used an AI companion, Fortune reports.

New York is not alone. Australia’s lower house today passed a bill aimed at chatbots that pose as children’s best friends. The plain reading: with about two months until it takes effect, every major chatbot used in New York will have to decide whether to verify ages or switch off memory, personality and flattery for anyone it cannot confirm is an adult.