Starting in January, New Yorkers can file complaints with the attorney general if chatbots cross a line with their kids. Artificial intelligence is everywhere now. It has become part of most Americans’ work and personal lives at an unprecedented pace, popping up in our inboxes and social media apps even when we haven’t opted into a chatbot ourselves.
Examples of the harm have rolled in, from staggering numbers of deepfake nudes being created of children to teens who turn to AI for advice during a mental health crisis. But in New York, new legislation will try to rein in the technology and the risks it poses to minors. The new law, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2027, prohibits companies with AI chatbots “from offering unsafe features to minors, including chatbots that pretend to be human, build emotional dependency, encourage self-harm or engage in sexually explicit conversations.” Companies would have to block these features on the accounts of anyone under 18, or any user whose age has not been verified.
The law requires chatbot providers to verify users through multiple age assurance methods. Once verified, that age information must be deleted. It was signed into law by Gov.
Kathy Hochul on Oct. 28, 2026. Hochul’s website, the legislation prohibits AI chatbots from, among other things: Violations of the new law could result in fines of up to $25,000 per infraction. The attorney general will publish a new website where New Yorkers can file complaints.
New York’s new law is an attempt to curtail the behaviors that are most harmful to kids, experts say. The story of Adam Raine — a teenager who died by suicide, and whose conversations with ChatGPT exposed that it offered to write his suicide note for him — is one example of why humanizing chatbot behaviors like these are targeted by this law. Surveys have shown kids ages 11 to 16 can’t really articulate what AI is, and many ascribe human-like consciousness and emotions to chatbots.
It’s not enough for companies to just put in guardrails for something that happens after the fact. What they’re asking companies to do is to understand the risks and build according to what we believe those risks are,” says Dona Fraser, SVP of Privacy Initiatives at BBB National Programs, an independent industry accountability organization. More than half of kids (57%) who use AI said they’ve used it to get information about their health or body; separate studies have found that AI gives misleading or inaccurate health information to users 50% of the time.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
