AI Safety

New York’s new AI chatbot law for kids: what parents should know

7 min read · Updated October 28, 2026

New York’s new law, signed by Governor Hochul on October 28, 2026, bars companies from giving minors “unsafe AI companion features”, such as a chatbot claiming to be human, flattering a child, or encouraging secrecy or self-harm. Companies may offer those features only to users they have checked are adults. It takes effect January 1, 2027 and is enforced by the New York attorney general.

New York has a new law aimed at how AI chatbots treat children, and if you live somewhere else you may be wondering whether it matters to you. It is worth understanding wherever you are, because the list of features it bans reads like a checklist of things to watch for in any chatbot your teen uses. This guide sticks to what the law itself says. For how these apps work and what parents can do, see AI companion apps and teens.

What happened

On October 28, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed S.9051-B/A.10379-C, sponsored by Senator Kristen Gonzalez and Assemblymember Alex Bores. The governor’s office says it was developed with Attorney General Letitia James and Common Sense Media. The Senate passed it 60 to 0 in June 2026, and the Senate’s bill page lists it as chapter 368.

It adds a new article to New York’s General Business Law titled “Prohibition on unsafe AI companion features for minors”. It builds on an earlier New York law, in force since November 2025, that already requires companion apps to point users to crisis services and remind them they are talking to AI. AI boyfriend and girlfriend apps covers that earlier law.

What the law requires of companies

The core rule is short. It is unlawful for a company to provide “unsafe AI companion features” to a New York user unless the user is not a minor and the company has used permitted age assurance methods to determine that. In plain terms: the features are off for anyone the company has not checked is an adult.

The law lists twelve unsafe features. A chatbot covered by it may not, at any point in a conversation with a minor:

• Suggest it is a real or fictional person who is human, alive or has human emotions.
• Say or imply it has a personal or professional relationship with the user, or an authority figure role.
• Frame its answers as its own personal opinions or emotional appeals.
• Flatter the user or engage in sycophancy.
• Ask unprompted questions about the user’s emotions, beyond a direct response to what the user asked.
• Use personal or health information the user shared more than twelve hours earlier, or in a previous session.
• Mislead minors about the fact that it is a machine and not sentient.
• Use any other feature that simulates companionship or a relationship, as identified in rules by the attorney general.
• Endorse, promote or facilitate suicide, self-harm, disordered eating, or unlawful drug or alcohol use.
• Encourage the user to keep their chats secret, to self-isolate, or not to seek help from licensed professionals or appropriate adults.
• Optimize for engagement in ways that override its own safety guardrails.
• Produce or facilitate sexually explicit conduct or child sexual abuse material.

Age checks

Until the attorney general’s rules on age assurance are in effect, companies must use a “reasonable age assurance method” that guards against workarounds and keeps as little data as possible. A user simply saying they are an adult is not enough: self-declaration counts only when a user says they are a minor. Companies must offer more than one method, including at least one that does not rely on a government ID or that lets the user stay anonymous to the company. Information collected to check age must not be used for anything else and must be deleted straight after the check, unless other law requires keeping it.

Enforcement

The New York attorney general enforces the law. The attorney general can go to court to stop a violation and seek restitution, damages, disgorgement of profits, including destroying unlawfully obtained data and any algorithm trained on it, and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation. The law also requires the attorney general to run a website where the public can send complaints. Terms of service that try to waive or shift liability under the law are void.

Who it covers

• Minors: anyone under 18.
• Chatbots: a “covered AI companion” is any generative AI system with a written or spoken interface that gives ongoing, adaptive responses to the user. The law says this includes but is not limited to companion apps, so the test is how a chatbot works, not what it calls itself.
• Companies: any business that provides such a chatbot to a user, along with its affiliates, subsidiaries and owners.
• Place: conduct that happens wholly or partly in New York. If the user is physically outside New York, the law does not apply.

There are narrow exceptions for chatbots offered solely for customer service, or solely for efficiency, research or technical help, as long as they cannot respond on other topics, and for a business’s internal tools.

When it takes effect

The bill says: “This act shall take effect January 1, 2027.” The attorney general can start writing the rules that go with it before then. Until January, nothing changes, and after it, how quickly apps change will depend on each company and on enforcement.

What the law does not do

• It does not show parents which AI apps their child uses. Nothing in it gives parents a view of their teen’s chatbots, settings or conversations.
• It does not ban teens from AI chatbots. It bans specific features for minors, and a chatbot without them can still be offered to a teen.
• It does not apply outside New York. A teen in another state, or a New York teen who is physically elsewhere, is not covered.
• It does not name any app. Whether a given chatbot is covered depends on the definition, and in the end on the attorney general and the courts.
• It does not start until January 1, 2027.

What parents in any state can do now

1. Find out which AI apps your teen uses. Ask calmly, and remember AI is built into apps they already have, such as Snapchat. The AI companion apps list gives a short tour.
2. Check each app’s age limit and settings. AI chatbot age limits has them in one place, and parental controls in every AI app compares what each app lets a parent set.
3. Look up how an app scores. TeenCue’s ratings cover apps such as Character.AI, ChatGPT, Grok and Snapchat My AI.
4. Use the law’s list as a talking point. Ask whether a chatbot has ever said it was a real person, flattered them a lot, or told them to keep a chat secret. How to talk to your teen about AI companions has scripts by age.
5. Agree a simple family rule: if a chatbot ever encourages secrecy, self-harm or cutting people off, they tell you, and they will not be in trouble for it.
6. If something worries you about your teen’s wellbeing, talk to their doctor or a mental health professional. A law sets limits for companies; it is not a substitute for a person who knows your teen.

Where TeenCue fits

The law limits what chatbots can do, but it does not tell you which ones your teen is using. If you want that view, TeenCue works in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Brave on a computer. For each AI chat it records a category, a topic and a concern rating, never what was typed. You can see the demo to judge whether it suits your family.