New York Takes Aim at AI ‘Friends’ for Kids, but Tech Warns of a Wider Lockout
New York Takes Aim at AI ‘Friends’ for Kids, but Tech Warns of a Wider Lockout
New York lawmakers approved the measure earlier this year, amid a wider state-level push to police how artificial intelligence affects children, workers and public safety. The new law goes further than many earlier guardrails by targeting the way companion chatbots speak to young users, not merely the data they collect or the content they generate.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the legislation on Oct. 28. It bars AI operators from offering minors chatbot responses that present the system as human, alive or capable of human emotion. It also prohibits sycophantic flattery, encouragement of suicide or drug use, and prompts that steer children away from trusted adults. Companies will have to verify users’ ages, with at least one option not reliant solely on government ID.
Hochul framed the measure as a necessary line against machines masquerading as intimate companions. “No longer will minors have access to chatbots that pretend to be their friends and boyfriends and girlfriends,” she said. The law also empowers Attorney General Letitia James to pursue operators, seek financial penalties and demand destruction of illegally obtained data. It takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.
Supporters say that enforcement threat is the point. Common Sense Media called the statute “the strongest kids’ AI safety bill in the country,” arguing that features it considers dangerous — even deadly — should not be treated as innovation.
But Tech:NYC, an industry advocacy group whose members include companies operating chatbots, says the law is “deeply flawed.” It warned that vague wording could force firms to limit minors’ access to tutoring, homework help, coding assistants and career platforms, while raising First Amendment concerns. The clash leaves New York at the leading edge of a national question: how to shield children from AI manipulation without walling them off from useful technology.
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