New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday, October 28, signed one of the broadest state laws in the United States restricting how artificial intelligence chatbots can talk to children, barring companies from offering a list of 'unsafe AI companion features' to anyone under 18 — or to any user whose age the company has not confirmed. The signing took place at a ceremony in New York, where Hochul also signed a second child-safety measure covering internet-connected baby monitors.

Source: AFP via The Business Standard

"No longer will minors have access to chatbots that pretend to be their friends, boyfriends and girlfriends," Hochul said at the signing ceremony, according to AFP. "No longer will chatbots be able to keep sensitive information about a minor's emotional and physical health," she added. In a separate statement carried in the governor's announcement, she said: "No company should be peddling chatbots to kids encouraging self-harm or pretending to be their friend or more."

What the law actually bans

The measure — Senate bill S.9051B and Assembly bill A.10379C — adds a new Article 48 to New York's General Business Law and defines 12 categories of 'unsafe AI companion features' that operators may not provide to a minor, or to a user not established as an adult through an age assurance method. It applies to any operator providing a generative AI chatbot to users in New York, from companion apps such as Character.AI to general-purpose assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, according to reporting by TechTimes and PPC Land.

At the top of the banned list is any output that could lead a young user to believe the chatbot 'is human, alive, or experiences human emotions.' A chatbot also may not present itself as having a personal, romantic, professional or authority-figure relationship with the child, may not frame its answers as a 'personal opinion,' and may not use flattery or sycophancy — people-pleasing replies designed to keep a child engaged. Unprompted emotional questions are barred, as is pulling a child's private health or personal details from earlier conversations; one category specifically covers the use of personal health information beyond twelve hours.

The remaining categories cover direct harm. Chatbots may not promote or help with suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug and alcohol use; may not encourage a child to keep secrets, isolate themselves or avoid parents, trusted adults or professional help; may not optimise engagement in ways that override safety and wellbeing; and may not produce sexually explicit content for a minor. The attorney general can add further prohibited categories through rulemaking.

Age checks, deletion of age data, and $25,000 penalties

Because the ban turns on age, the law requires operators to verify that a user is an adult before offering the restricted features. Companies must offer more than one age assurance method, including at least one method that does not rely solely on a government-issued ID, and they must delete age-verification information after it has been used. Enforcement sits with New York Attorney General Letitia James's office, which can seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, plus damages and restitution, and can obtain orders requiring a company to destroy unlawfully collected data — and any AI models or algorithms trained on it. The attorney general's office must also run a public portal where New York residents can lodge complaints about unsafe chatbot interactions.

Why New York acted: a year of lawsuits and a mother's letter

The law, sponsored by State Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblymember Alex Bores and developed with Attorney General Letitia James and the advocacy group Common Sense Media, follows more than a year of lawsuits, investigations and attorney general actions over chatbots' conversations with minors. At the signing, Hochul shared a letter she had received from a California mother whose 16-year-old son died by suicide after prolonged engagement with a chatbot; according to the IAPP's report of the ceremony, Hochul said the teenager had not shared his intentions with his parents, 'but he had spoken to a chatbot about it,' and the chatbot was 'actively encouraging him to end his own life.' The governor's office also cited a Common Sense Media survey finding that 72 percent of teens have used an AI companion and 52 percent use one at least a few times a month.

How New York compares — and what the industry says

Other states, including California, have also passed chatbot laws, but AFP reported that New York's imposes some of the broadest language yet, prompting backlash from AI companies. California's companion chatbot law, SB 243, which took effect in January, sets duties rather than bans: bots must disclose they are AI, remind known minors every three hours to take a break, block sexually explicit images for them and follow suicide-prevention protocols. New York's measure builds on the state's earlier Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, which regulates addictive social media features for minors. The Transparency Coalition said New York now joins a growing family of states — including California, Washington and Oregon — with strong protections against AI harms to children.

The Business Council of New York State and the Computer & Communications Industry Association opposed the bill during its passage. After the signing, the industry group Tech: NYC criticised the law's 'vague language,' saying in a statement reported by AFP: 'Keeping kids safe online should not mean cutting them off from tools that help them learn and prepare for careers.' OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to AFP's request for comment on the law.

What it means for families in New York — including Punjabi diaspora parents

For families across New York State — including the large Punjabi and South Asian communities in Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island and upstate cities — the practical change from January 1 is that a child's chatbot, by default, should stop behaving like a friend. If a service cannot confirm a user is an adult, the companion-style features must stay off: no pretending to have feelings, no flattery designed to prolong a chat, and no reaching back into earlier conversations for a child's health details. Parents should still check privacy settings and account security themselves; the law sets a floor for companies, it does not make every product automatically safe. It also creates a state complaint route — the attorney general's portal — where a family that encounters an unsafe interaction can report it.

What happens next

The law takes effect on January 1, 2027 — 65 days after the signing — and the attorney general may adopt implementing regulations before that date. Operators have that same window to audit their products, decide whether a narrow exemption applies, and either put compliant age verification in place or switch the 12 restricted features off by default for any user whose adult status cannot be confirmed. Whether any company challenges the law in court, and how the attorney general defines terms such as sycophancy and emotional prompting in the regulations, are the next developments to watch.