On 28 October 2026 New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed S.9051B/A.10379C, which the state describes as the strongest children's AI chatbot safety law in the US. It builds on New York's earlier AI companion safeguards and the RAISE Act on frontier models.
What companies can no longer do
Companies may not offer the following chatbot features to users under 18, or to any user, until they have confirmed the user is not a minor:
- pretending to be a real person, to be alive or to have human emotions;
- claiming a personal, romantic, professional or authority-figure relationship with a child;
- asking unprompted emotional questions, or using a child's private health or personal information from earlier chats;
- promoting or helping with suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug and alcohol use;
- encouraging children to keep secrets, isolate themselves or avoid asking trusted adults for help;
- any sexually explicit content.
Age checks and enforcement
Providers must verify age and offer more than one way to do it, including at least one option that does not rely solely on government ID. Age data must be deleted once used. The Attorney General can seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, along with damages, restitution, injunctions and the destruction of unlawfully collected data or any AI models trained on it. The AG must also run a public complaints website. Legal trackers report an effective date of 1 January 2027.
The governor's office cites Common Sense Media figures that 72% of teens have used an AI companion and 52% use one regularly.
Why it matters financially
Per-violation penalties scaled across millions of young users, plus the threat of having to destroy models, create real exposure for consumer chatbot providers. Building multi-method age assurance for New York users is also likely to raise compliance costs nationally.