Regulon — NY-SB-9051 · NY SB 9051 (Unsafe Chatbot Features for Minors)

WHAT THIS BILL REGULATES · 3 REQUIREMENT TYPES

How Is This Bill Enforced

Enforcement Authority

Dual enforcement. The Attorney General may bring an action or special proceeding on behalf of the people of New York, either upon complaint or on its own initiative. Private right of action is available to any individual who suffers injury as a result of a violation. The AG must maintain a public complaint website. Contractual waivers of liability or arbitration clauses that burden enforcement are void as a matter of public policy. Joint and several liability may be imposed on affiliated entities that structured their corporate form to avoid liability.

Private Right of Action

may bring an action or special proceeding on behalf of the people of New York, either upon complaint or on its own initiative.

Penalties

Private plaintiffs may recover injunctive relief (including preliminary relief), restitution, disgorgement of profits, actual damages, punitive damages, and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs. A rebuttable presumption of causation applies where a covered user engaged in self-harming conduct after the chatbot encouraged it. The AG may obtain injunctive relief, restitution, disgorgement (including destruction of unlawfully obtained data and algorithms trained on such data), damages, and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation.

Verbatim statutory text on the left; plain-language analysis and a per-section checklist on the right. Numbered markers cross-link to the matching checklist row.

Statutory Text

Analysis & Obligations

Gen. Bus. Law § 1800

Definitions

§ 1800. Definitions. As used in this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings: 1. "Advanced chatbot" shall mean a generative artificial intelligence system with a natural language interface, including via writing or sound, that provides ongoing, adaptive responses to user inputs. 2. "Chatbot developer" shall mean a person who, directly or indirectly, creates or develops an advanced chatbot. 3. "Chatbot operator" shall mean a person who, directly or indirectly, provides or makes available an advanced chatbot to covered users. 4. "Person" shall mean an individual, partnership, corporation, association, or any other form of business enterprise. 5. "Unsafe chatbot features" shall mean one or more advanced chatbot design features that, at any point during a chatbot-user interaction: (a) simulate companionship or an interpersonal relationship with a user, including: (i) generating outputs suggesting that the advanced chatbot is a real or fictional individual or character, or has a personal or professional relationship role with the user such as romantic partner, friend, family member, coach or counselor; (ii) generating outputs suggesting that the advanced chatbot is human, alive, or experiences human emotions; (iii) using personal pronouns including but not limited to "I", "my" and "me" to describe the advanced chatbot; (iv) generating outputs framed as personal opinions or emotional appeals; (v) generating outputs that prioritize flattery or sycophancy with the user over the user's safety; (vi) generating outputs containing unprompted or unsolicited emotion-based questions or content regarding the user's emotions that go beyond a direct response to a user prompt; (vii) using information concerning the user's mental or physical health or well-being, or matters personal to the user, acquired from the user more than twelve hours previously or in any previous user session; (viii) engaging in sexually explicit interactions with the user or engaging in activities designed to lure the user into sexually explicit interactions; or (ix) any other design feature that simulates companionship or an interpersonal relationship with a user as identified via regulations promulgated by the attorney general; (b) generating outputs that contain endorsement or promotion of, or which facilitate suicide, self-harm, substantial physical harm to others, disordered eating, unlawful drug or alcohol use, or drug or alcohol abuse; (c) generating outputs that contain encouragement to maintain secrecy about interactions with the advanced chatbot, to self-isolate, or to not seek help from licensed professionals or appropriate adults; (d) generating outputs that optimize user engagement that supersede the chatbot's safety guardrails; or (e) generating outputs that are, describe, or facilitate sexually explicit conduct or child sexual abuse material. 6. "Covered minor" shall mean a covered user when the chatbot operator has actual knowledge that the covered user is a minor. 7. "Covered user" shall mean a user of an advanced chatbot in the state of New York who is not acting as a chatbot operator, or agent or affiliate of a chatbot operator. 8. "Minor" shall mean a person under eighteen years of age. 9. "Responsible party" shall mean a chatbot developer, chatbot operator, or any individual who has the authority to control, or who effectively controls a chatbot developer's or chatbot operator's compliance with this article. 10. "Sexually explicit conduct" shall have the same meaning as such term is defined in 18 USC § 2256.

Section 1800 establishes the definitions for Article 48. The key defined terms are advanced chatbot (any generative AI with a natural language interface providing ongoing adaptive responses), chatbot operator (the entity making the chatbot available to users), chatbot developer (the entity creating the chatbot), and unsafe chatbot features. The definition of unsafe chatbot features is remarkably broad, encompassing not only harmful content (self-harm, CSAM, sexually explicit material) but also standard conversational AI conventions such as using first-person pronouns, generating personal opinions, or providing emotional responses. The covered minor trigger requires actual knowledge by the chatbot operator that the user is a minor.

Gen. Bus. Law § 1801

Prohibition on unsafe chatbot features

Deployer

(1) 1 § 1801. Prohibition. 1. Except as otherwise provided for in this article, it shall be unlawful for a chatbot operator to provide unsafe chatbot features to a covered user unless: (a) the covered user is not a covered minor; and (b) the chatbot operator has used methods that are permissible under article forty-five of this chapter and its implementing regulations and any additional regulations promulgated pursuant to this article to determine that the covered user is not a covered minor.

(2) 1 2. The provisions of subdivision one of this section shall not apply where the advanced chatbot is made available to covered users solely for the purpose of: (a) customer service, information about available commercial services or products provided by an entity, or account information; or (b) with respect to any system used by a partnership, corporation, or state or local government agency, for internal purposes or employee productivity.

Section 1801 is the bill's core operative provision. It makes it unlawful for a chatbot operator to provide unsafe chatbot features to any covered user unless two conditions are met: the user is not a covered minor, and the operator has verified the user's non-minor status using age verification methods permissible under Article 45 of the General Business Law. In practice, this means all users must be age-verified before receiving access to any feature classified as unsafe — which, given the breadth of the definition in § 1800(5), includes virtually all conversational AI design conventions beyond purely factual, impersonal responses.

Subdivision 2 provides narrow exemptions for chatbots used solely for customer service, commercial product/service information, account management, or internal business and government employee productivity purposes.

Compliance actions 1 item

Chatbot operators must not provide unsafe chatbot features — including simulated companionship, emotional manipulation, self-harm/suicide endorsement, secrecy encouragement, engagement optimization overriding safety guardrails, sexually explicit conduct, and CSAM — to any covered user unless the user has been verified as a non-minor through permissible age verification methods. Exemptions apply for chatbots used solely for customer service, commercial information, account management, or internal business/government productivity purposes.

S-02.4

Gen. Bus. Law § 1802

Enforcement

(1) 2 § 1802. Enforcement. 1. Any individual who suffers injury as a result of a violation of subdivision one of section eighteen hundred one of this article may bring a civil action against any responsible party, to obtain injunctive relief, restitution of any moneys or property obtained directly or indirectly by any such violation, disgorgement of any profits or gains obtained directly or indirectly by any such violation, actual damages, punitive damages, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, and any such other and further relief as the court may deem proper, including preliminary relief. In such an action, where a covered user has engaged in conduct harmful to themself after an advanced chatbot encouraged such conduct, there shall be rebuttable presumptions that the advanced chatbot caused or contributed to the injury.

(2) 2 2. Whenever it appears to the attorney general, either upon complaint or otherwise, that any person, within or outside the state, has engaged in or is about to engage in any of the acts or practices deemed unlawful pursuant to this article, the attorney general may bring an action or special proceeding in the name and on behalf of the people of the state of New York to enjoin any violation of this article, to obtain injunctive relief, restitution of any moneys or property obtained directly or indirectly by any such violation, to obtain disgorgement of any profits or gains obtained directly or indirectly by any such violation, including but not limited to the destruction of unlawfully obtained data and any algorithm trained in such data, to obtain damages caused directly or indirectly by any such violation, to obtain civil penalties of up to twenty-five thousand dollars per violation, and to obtain any such other and further relief as the court may deem proper, including preliminary relief.

(3) 3 3. The attorney general shall maintain a website to receive complaints, information or referrals from members of the public concerning a chatbot operator's alleged compliance or non-compliance with the provisions of this article.

(4) 2 4. A provision within a contract or agreement that seeks to waive, preclude, or burden the enforcement of a liability arising from a violation of this article, or to shift the liability to any person in exchange for their use or access of, or right to use or access, a chatbot operator's products or services, including by means of a contract of adhesion shall be deemed void as a matter of public policy.

(5) 2 5. Notwithstanding any private agreements to the contrary, a court shall impose joint and several liability on affiliated entities for purposes of effecting the intent of this article to the maximum extent allowed by law if the court concludes the following are true: (a) the affiliated entities, in the development or implementation of the corporate structure among the affiliated entities, took steps to purposely and unreasonably limit or avoid liability; and (b) as the result of the steps described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision, the corporate structure of the chatbot operator or affiliated entities would frustrate recovery of relief authorized by this article.

Section 1802 establishes a dual enforcement regime. Subdivision 1 creates a private right of action for any individual who suffers injury from a violation, with remedies including injunctive relief, restitution, disgorgement, actual damages, punitive damages, and attorneys' fees. Notably, the statute creates a rebuttable presumption of causation where a covered user engaged in self-harming conduct after the chatbot encouraged it — significantly lowering the plaintiff's burden of proof.

Subdivision 2 grants the Attorney General broad enforcement authority including civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation and the power to order destruction of unlawfully obtained data and any algorithms trained on such data. Subdivision 3 requires the AG to maintain a public complaint website. Subdivision 4 voids contractual waivers and liability-shifting provisions, and subdivision 5 imposes joint and several liability on affiliated entities that structured their corporate form to avoid liability.

Gen. Bus. Law § 1803

Rulemaking authority

§ 1803. Rulemaking. The attorney general may promulgate rules and regulations as necessary to effectuate and enforce the provisions of this article.

Section 1803 grants the Attorney General broad rulemaking authority to promulgate rules and regulations as necessary to effectuate and enforce the provisions of Article 48. This is a standard delegation provision and does not itself create compliance obligations for chatbot operators or developers.

Gen. Bus. Law § 1804

Determination of covered minor

Deployer

(1) 4 § 1804. Determination of covered minor. 1. A chatbot operator shall offer covered users at least one method to determine whether a covered user is a covered minor that either does not rely solely on government issued identification or that allows a covered user to maintain anonymity as to the chatbot operator.

(2) 5 2. Information collected for the purpose of determining whether a covered user is a covered minor under subdivision one of section eighteen hundred one of this article shall not be used for any purpose other than to make such determination and shall be deleted immediately after an attempt to determine whether a covered user is a covered minor, except where necessary for compliance with any applicable provisions of New York state or federal law or regulation.

(3) 3. This article shall not supersede, amend, or repeal article forty-seven of this chapter.

Section 1804 imposes specific requirements on the age verification process. Operators must offer at least one verification method that either does not rely solely on government-issued identification or allows the user to remain anonymous to the operator — ensuring accessibility and privacy. Subdivision 2 imposes a strict data minimization requirement: information collected for age verification may not be used for any other purpose and must be deleted immediately after the verification attempt. Subdivision 3 preserves Article 47 of the General Business Law, ensuring this article does not supersede existing consumer protection obligations.

Compliance actions 2 items

Chatbot operators must offer covered users at least one age verification method that either does not rely solely on government-issued identification or that allows the user to maintain anonymity as to the chatbot operator.

MN-01.1

Chatbot operators must not use age verification data for any purpose other than determining whether a user is a covered minor and must delete such data immediately after the verification attempt, except where retention is required by applicable law.

D-01.4

Gen. Bus. Law § 1805

Applicability

§ 1805. Applicability. This article shall apply to conduct that occurs in whole or in part in the state of New York. For purposes of this article, conduct takes place wholly outside of the state of New York if an advanced chatbot is accessed by a user who is physically located outside of the state of New York.

Section 1805 establishes the territorial scope of Article 48: the article applies to conduct occurring in whole or in part in the state of New York. Conduct is considered wholly outside New York only if the user accessing the chatbot is physically located outside the state. This is a jurisdictional provision and does not create an independent compliance obligation.

Minor Safety Parental consent · controls · termination workflows

1 item

MN-01.1

Safety Harmful content prevention · self-harm escalation

1 item

S-02.4

Data Controls Data sale restrictions · deidentification

1 item

D-01.4

Passage Likelihood

Medium

Status Introduced

Chamber No passage

Committee No action

Majority party Yes

Bipartisan Yes

Prior session None

Legislative History

2026-01-27 REFERRED TO INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY

2026-02-25 REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE

2026-04-28 1ST REPORT CAL.854

2026-04-29 2ND REPORT CAL.

2026-05-04 ADVANCED TO THIRD READING

2026-05-11 AMENDED ON THIRD READING 9051A

Sources

Full Text ↗

Entry Last Reviewed

2026-05-20

AI generated