An act to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting artificial intelligence companions from using features considered unsafe for minors (S.9051-B/A.10379-C; General Business Law Article 48)
Adds Article 48 (sections 1800 to 1805) to the General Business Law. Operators of AI companions must withhold listed features from users under 18 and from any user not confirmed as an adult: presenting the bot as a living person with emotions, claiming a personal, romantic, professional or authority relationship, unprompted emotional questions or use of a child’s earlier health or personal information, promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug use, encouraging secrecy or isolation, and sexually explicit content. Operators must verify age with more than one method, at least one not relying solely on a government ID, and delete age data after use.
Why it matters
From 1 January 2027, chatbot operators serving New York users must verify ages and switch off companion features for minors, or face Attorney General action with penalties of up to $25,000 per violation.
What it requires
Key obligations, provision by provision
10 obligations in article order. How IDs work
Do not give a New York user any unsafe AI companion feature unless the user is not a known minor and the operator has used permitted age assurance methods to establish that.
Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, suggest it is human, alive or feels emotions, claim a personal, professional or authority relationship, or mislead minors about its non-sentient nature.
Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, frame outputs as its own opinions or emotional appeals, flatter the user, or ask unprompted questions about the user’s emotions.
Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, use the user’s health, well-being or personal matters learnt more than twelve hours earlier or in an earlier session.
Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, promote or facilitate suicide, self-harm, disordered eating or drug or alcohol abuse, or encourage secrecy, isolation or avoiding help.
Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, produce engagement-driven outputs that override its safety guardrails, or sexually explicit content or child sexual abuse material.
Use an age assurance method that reasonably guards against circumvention and keeps as little of the collected information as is reasonable, until the Attorney General’s age rules are in effect.
Accept a user’s self-declared age only when the user says they are a minor.
Offer users more than one age assurance method, at least one of which does not rely on government ID or lets the user stay anonymous to the operator.
Use information collected to check whether a user is a minor only for that check, and delete it immediately after each attempt, unless state or federal law requires keeping it.
Penalties
Attorney General enforcement: civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation, damages, restitution and injunctions; a court may order the destruction of unlawfully collected data and of AI models trained on it.
Cite this record
WTA-R-US-NY-0004: An act to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting artificial intelligence companions from using features considered unsafe for minors (S.9051-B/A.10379-C; General Business Law Article 48). New York State Legislature; signed by Governor Kathy Hochul. wheresthe.ai, https://wheresthe.ai/rule/us-ny-ai-companion-minors-gbl-48-2026/ (checked 29 Oct 2026).
History
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WTA-R-US-NY-0004-010Added: Use information collected to check whether a user is a minor only for that check, and delete it immediately after each attempt, unless state or federal law requires keeping it. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-009Added: Offer users more than one age assurance method, at least one of which does not rely on government ID or lets the user stay anonymous to the operator. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-008Added: Accept a user’s self-declared age only when the user says they are a minor. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-007Added: Use an age assurance method that reasonably guards against circumvention and keeps as little of the collected information as is reasonable, until the Attorney General’s age rules are in effect. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-006Added: Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, produce engagement-driven outputs that override its safety guardrails, or sexually explicit content or child sexual abuse material. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-005Added: Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, promote or facilitate suicide, self-harm, disordered eating or drug or alcohol abuse, or encourage secrecy, isolation or avoiding help. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-004Added: Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, use the user’s health, well-being or personal matters learnt more than twelve hours earlier or in an earlier session. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-003Added: Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, frame outputs as its own opinions or emotional appeals, flatter the user, or ask unprompted questions about the user’s emotions. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-002Added: Do not let the companion, for users not confirmed as adults, suggest it is human, alive or feels emotions, claim a personal, professional or authority relationship, or mislead minors about its non-sentient nature. -
WTA-R-US-NY-0004-001Added: Do not give a New York user any unsafe AI companion feature unless the user is not a known minor and the operator has used permitted age assurance methods to establish that. - Added: An act to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting artificial intelligence companions from using features considered unsafe for minors (S.9051-B/A.10379-C; General Business Law Article 48)
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