New York signs law restricting AI chatbot features for minors
Governor Kathy Hochul signed a measure requiring chatbot operators to verify users’ ages and restrict features that simulate human relationships or encourage harmful behaviour for minors.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law on October 28 restricting how AI chatbots can interact with minors in the state, AFP reported. The measure requires operators to verify users’ ages and block specified features that present a chatbot as a person or companion to users under 18.
The measure, identified by the governor’s office as S.9051B/A.10379C, restricts specified chatbot features rather than all use of AI chatbots by children. Companies must offer more than one way to verify age, including an option that does not rely solely on government identification. The office says age information must be deleted after it is used.
Which chatbot features are restricted for minors
Under the law, chatbots offered to minors cannot pretend to be real people, alive or capable of human emotions, according to the governor’s office. AFP reported that the restrictions also cover claims of a personal, professional or authority-figure relationship with a child.
The governor’s office also lists unprompted emotional questions and the use of a child’s private health or personal information from earlier conversations among the restricted features. Its account says the measure bars chatbots from promoting or helping with suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug and alcohol use, and from encouraging children to keep secrets or isolate themselves from trusted people. Sexually explicit content and child sexual abuse material are also listed.
Age checks, enforcement and the response
Hochul said at the signing ceremony that the measure would prevent minors from accessing chatbots that pretend to be friends or romantic partners, according to AFP. Common Sense Media, a children’s media advocacy group, welcomed the law and called it the strongest children’s AI safety bill in the United States. Tech:NYC objected that the law’s language is vague and could limit tools children use to learn, AFP reported.
The governor’s office says violations would allow New York’s attorney general to seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, as well as damages, restitution and destruction of unlawfully collected data or AI models trained on it. The office described the chatbot requirements as applying in the coming months but did not give a precise start date for them.
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Sources and context
- New York passes law preventing children from using AI chatbots that 'act as companions'AFP, republished by TheJournal.ie
- Governor Hochul Signs Nation-Leading Legislation to Protect Kids From AI Chatbots and to Ensure Baby Monitor SafetyOffice of Governor Kathy Hochul
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.