New York Signs AI Chatbot Child Safety Law as States Diverge

Governor Kathy Hochul signed S.9051b/A.10379c on October 28, prohibiting AI chatbots from pretending to be human, forming romantic or authority-figure relationships with minors, and promoting self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, or drug use. This is New York's second AI chatbot law; an earlier statute, the Artificial Intelligence Companion Models Law, took effect November 5, 2025, and was the first state law to specifically regulate emotionally responsive AI companion chatbots. California's SB 243 followed, taking effect in January 2026. Both the 2025 New York law and California's SB 243 apply to operators serving users in those states regardless of where they are headquartered and mandate crisis-response protocols for user expressions of self-harm or suicidal ideation. The October 2026 law allows the attorney general to seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation and may require destruction of unlawfully collected data or AI models trained on it. Several other states including Maine, Utah, Nevada, and Illinois have enacted or introduced related AI chatbot legislation.