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by Tom Eschen
NYS Capital — New York and California were two of the first States to put guardrails on Artificial Intelligence chatbots in 2025, and now, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is pushing to expand those restrictions more, specifically when it comes to children.
“With evolving technology and online platforms allowing people to connect from anywhere in the world, it is important now more than ever to keep our kids safe online from any and all potential harms,” Governor Hochul said at a recent roundtable with parents and advocacy groups. “This common-sense proposal will not only protect our children online, but also offer parents a peace of mind while their kids are gaming and scrolling on social media.”
Her proposal includes package of bills, aimed at expanding on the provisions set forth in the SAFE for Kids Act.
The legislation would expand age verification and privacy settings, while also disable AI Chatbot features and limit financial transactions.
To help craft some of these proposals, the Governor, along with other State lawmakers, have worked with Common Sense Media, who is described as a "leading independent source for media recommendations and advice for families."
"Increasingly, kids are using [chatbots] for emotional support, for mental health therapy and for developing friendship, and there is a very strong concern that developing brain of a teenager is a total mismatch with a machine pretending to be a human," Danny Weiss, Chief Advocacy Officer with Common Sense Media told CBS6.
A recent proposal is aimed at addressing that issue, spearheaded by New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez (D-59), Chair of the Senate Committee on Internet and Technology. The bill, S9051, would prohibit chatbots from stimulating emotional connections with children.
A release includes the features that would be banned:
-Outputs suggesting that the chatbot is a real or fictional character, or has a personal or professional connection/relationship role with the user
-Outputs suggesting that the chatbot has personal opinions, pronouns, and experiences human emotions
-Storing and use of data on a user’s mental or physical well-being, acquired from previous uses of the chatbot
-Any engagement or interactions of a sexually explicit nature
-Outputs that endorse harm to self or others, or that encourage secrecy, harm, or sexual content
“Companion chatbots are endangering our youth. The longer we wait to regulate these applications, the more kids are left vulnerable to exploitation. We must protect children from the risks associated with these chatbots. I am proud to be partnering with Attorney General James to keep kids safe from dangerous uses of AI chatbots, and I urge the legislature to join me in passing these protections," Senator Kristen Gonzalez said in a release.
Weiss says there's also the issue of individuals exploiting this technology at the expense of children. In 2023, Roblox had 13,000 reports of child exploitation. With that in mind, they're proposing those expanded age verification measures.
"The Attorney General has to establish regulations to ensure a commercially reasonable mechanism to identify the age of the user. They have that ability," Weiss says. "Currently, all the tech companies collect massive quantities of data, which those companies then use to tweak the algorithms for that user. So we know that they can give that user information or content that they would want because of their age. Therefore, we know that they have the ability to prevent them from getting content and information that's inappropriate for their age, but the Attorney General would be responsible for designing those new rules."
Right now, the required disclosures in the 2025 legislation do carry penalties for companies who don't comply. The Governor says, as more requirements are added, the more they'll be holding them accountable.
"The more they want to work with me, I'll open up my arms, but if you don't, you're going to be seeing a lot of serious consequences," the Governor said. "We'll make sure no matter what happens, even voluntarily, I want these passed and signed into law to codify, not just these rights and objectives but our values as New Yorkers and as parents."
Full interview with Common Sense Media:
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