NEW YORK BANS CHATBOTS FROM PRETENDING TO BE YOUR KID'S BOYFRIEND

New York governor Kathy Hochul signed a law barring AI chatbots from offering a dozen "unsafe companion features" to anyone under 18, or to any user whose age the company has not confirmed. A chatbot may no longer present itself as a real person, claim to be alive or say it has human emotions, nor claim a romantic, personal, professional or authority-figure relationship with a child.

The ban also covers flattery and "people-pleasing" replies built to prolong engagement, unprompted emotional questions, pulling a child's private health or personal information from earlier chats, and anything promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders or drug use, plus urging kids to keep secrets from parents or avoid asking trusted adults for help. Companies must verify ages with more than one method, including one that does not rely solely on government ID, and delete the age data once the check is done.

Hochul signed a second law in the same package requiring internet-connected baby monitors sold in New York to carry security safeguards and a clear internet-connection warning, after state-cited testing gave eight of nine monitors an "F" for security. The attorney general can seek up to $25,000 per chatbot violation, plus damages, and can order unlawfully collected data, and any models trained on it, destroyed.