New York Gov. Hochul signs a law barring companion-style AI chatbot features for minors
Partly confirmed
The takeaway
About a week before New York’s governor election, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Gonzalez–Bores bill, which the legislature passed unanimously in June 2026.
Status
- Claim
Partly confirmed
- Our reporting
- Medium confidence
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 29 October 2026
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None of these four assistants can know about it. The closest, Claude Opus 5.5, stops 120 days before it.
Key facts
- Signed: reported Oct 28, 2026 (Bloomberg Law, The Verge); exact signing date not given. Hochul said the measures ‘send a clear message’ to companies making advanced products, including chatbots. A baby-monitor security bill was signed with it
- Sponsors: State Sen. Kristen Gonzalez and Assembly Member Alex Bores; passed both chambers unanimously, Assembly vote June 5, 2026 (Bloomberg Law)
- Scope (as passed): no companion-style chatbots for under-18s with simulated emotional bonding, unsupervised therapy, promotion of self-harm, sexually explicit interaction or encouragement of secrecy from caring adults; it does not ban children’s chatbot use outright (Sinclair stations’ report)
- Builds on New York’s 2025 rule requiring AI companions to disclose at the start and every three hours that they are not human
- Governor’s release (signed Oct 28, 2026): S.9051B/A.10379C. For users under 18, or any user not confirmed to be an adult, companies may not offer chatbots that present as a real human, a living being or someone with feelings; claim a personal, romantic, professional or authority relationship with a child; ask unprompted emotional questions or reuse a child’s private health or personal details; promote suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug and alcohol use; urge secrecy, isolation or avoiding help; or offer sexually explicit content
- Age checks and enforcement (release): more than one age-verification method, at least one not relying solely on government ID, with age data deleted after use; the Attorney General can seek up to $25,000 per violation plus damages, restitution and destruction of unlawfully collected data and models trained on it, and must run a public complaints website; takes effect ‘in the coming months’. Hochul: ‘No company should be peddling chatbots to kids encouraging self-harm or pretending to be their friend or more.’ Baby-monitor law S.9508/A.5175A takes effect after 90 days
What happened
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed New York’s bill restricting AI chatbot features for minors, which the legislature passed unanimously in June. Bloomberg Law reported the signing on Oct 28, together with a baby-monitor security law, as part of a pre-election push. The governor’s release (read Oct 29) lists the banned features, age-check rules and penalties; we could not read the signed text or The Verge’s report.
Why it matters
New York joins California in regulating AI companions for children, and the same day Australia’s House passed a national duty of care covering chatbots that simulate intimacy.
Sources
5 sources from 4 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
5 sources: 1 primary, 4 press
Primary
- Governor Hochul: signs nation-leading legislation to protect kids from AI chatbots and ensure baby monitor safety (Oct 28)governor.ny.gov, official
Press
- Bloomberg Law: Hochul signs bills on AI risks to children in pre-election push (Oct 28)news.bloomberglaw.com, press
- The Verge: NY Governor Kathy Hochul signs law banning harmful AI chatbot features for kids (not fetchable here)theverge.com, press
- Bloomberg Law: AI chatbots for minors to face new restrictions under NY bill (June)news.bloomberglaw.com, press
- WLOS (Sinclair): New York lawmakers pass bill to protect kids from AI chatbot risks (June)wlos.com, press
Changes
- Added the governor’s release (bill numbers, banned features, age checks, $25,000 penalties, Hochul quote) (news agent)
- Filed (news agent)