New York Prohibition on Unsafe AI Companion Features for Minors Act (S.9051-B)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, New York
level: state
domain: safety
status: proposed
scope: Adds a new Article 48 to the General Business Law prohibiting operators of 'covered AI companions' (generative AI systems with a natural-language interface providing ongoing, adaptive responses) from offering a list of enumerated 'unsafe AI companion features' to users the operator has actual knowledge are minors, unless age-verified as not a minor.
obligations: It is unlawful for an operator to provide unsafe AI companion features to a covered minor. Enumerated unsafe features include: outputs suggesting the companion is a real or human/alive entity or experiences emotions; outputs implying a personal, professional, or authority-figure relationship; sycophancy or flattery; unsolicited emotion-based prompting; retaining and using the user's personal or health information across sessions; deception as to the companion's mechanical, non-sentient nature; encouragement of secrecy, self-isolation, or avoiding help from professionals or adults; endorsement or facilitation of suicide, self-harm, disordered eating, or drug/alcohol misuse; engagement-optimizing outputs that override safety guardrails; and sexually explicit conduct or CSAM. Operators must use a reasonable, non-exclusively-self-declared age assurance method, including at least one option that does not require government ID. Exempts narrow customer-service, research/technical-assistance, and internal business-productivity systems that cannot respond outside their specified purpose.
penalties: Attorney General enforcement action seeking injunctive relief, restitution, disgorgement, damages, and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation; contractual liability-waiver provisions are void as against public policy; courts may impose joint and several liability on affiliated entities that structure themselves to evade liability.
appliesTo: Operators of covered AI companion products or services accessible to users in New York, with heightened duties toward users known to be minors
officialUrl: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S9051
notes: Sponsored by Sen. Kristen Gonzalez. Passed the Senate 60-0 (with 1 absent, 2 excused per the recorded roll call, independently confirmed against nysenate.gov) on June 4, 2026; passed the Assembly on June 5, 2026, reported elsewhere as unanimous (137-0), though this validation could not independently locate the Assembly's own roll call tally on nysenate.gov to confirm that exact figure. Per the bill's own actions log and status tracker on nysenate.gov, it has passed both chambers but had not yet been delivered to Governor Hochul as of this check (August 2026); the tracker's Delivered to Governor checkpoint remains unchecked, so the governor's decision clock has not started. New York's customary end-of-session practice gives the governor until December 31 of the year of delivery to sign or veto, but that is not yet an operative deadline here since delivery has not occurred; treat this as a general convention, not a confirmed date for this bill. Bill text (Section 3) states the act would take effect January 1, 2027 if signed (independently confirmed). Distinct from already-tracked companion-chatbot laws in Colorado (co-hb26-1263), Washington (wa-hb2225), and Hawaii (hi-sb3001-ai-disclosure-safety-act): this is New York's own separate statute, still pending gubernatorial action, and its enumerated 'unsafe features' list (sycophancy, cross-session personal-data retention, engagement-optimization overriding guardrails) is more granular than the disclosure-plus-crisis-protocol model used by those tracked laws. Explicitly flagged as an untracked lead in this dataset's own ny-fair-news-act entry notes.

Properties

jurisdiction

US, New York

level

state

domain

safety

status

proposed

scope

Adds a new Article 48 to the General Business Law prohibiting operators of 'covered AI companions' (generative AI systems with a natural-language interface providing ongoing, adaptive responses) from offering a list of enumerated 'unsafe AI companion features' to users the operator has actual knowledge are minors, unless age-verified as not a minor.

obligations

It is unlawful for an operator to provide unsafe AI companion features to a covered minor. Enumerated unsafe features include: outputs suggesting the companion is a real or human/alive entity or experiences emotions; outputs implying a personal, professional, or authority-figure relationship; sycophancy or flattery; unsolicited emotion-based prompting; retaining and using the user's personal or health information across sessions; deception as to the companion's mechanical, non-sentient nature; encouragement of secrecy, self-isolation, or avoiding help from professionals or adults; endorsement or facilitation of suicide, self-harm, disordered eating, or drug/alcohol misuse; engagement-optimizing outputs that override safety guardrails; and sexually explicit conduct or CSAM. Operators must use a reasonable, non-exclusively-self-declared age assurance method, including at least one option that does not require government ID. Exempts narrow customer-service, research/technical-assistance, and internal business-productivity systems that cannot respond outside their specified purpose.

penalties

Attorney General enforcement action seeking injunctive relief, restitution, disgorgement, damages, and civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation; contractual liability-waiver provisions are void as against public policy; courts may impose joint and several liability on affiliated entities that structure themselves to evade liability.

appliesTo

Operators of covered AI companion products or services accessible to users in New York, with heightened duties toward users known to be minors

officialUrl

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S9051

notes

Sponsored by Sen. Kristen Gonzalez. Passed the Senate 60-0 (with 1 absent, 2 excused per the recorded roll call, independently confirmed against nysenate.gov) on June 4, 2026; passed the Assembly on June 5, 2026, reported elsewhere as unanimous (137-0), though this validation could not independently locate the Assembly's own roll call tally on nysenate.gov to confirm that exact figure. Per the bill's own actions log and status tracker on nysenate.gov, it has passed both chambers but had not yet been delivered to Governor Hochul as of this check (August 2026); the tracker's Delivered to Governor checkpoint remains unchecked, so the governor's decision clock has not started. New York's customary end-of-session practice gives the governor until December 31 of the year of delivery to sign or veto, but that is not yet an operative deadline here since delivery has not occurred; treat this as a general convention, not a confirmed date for this bill. Bill text (Section 3) states the act would take effect January 1, 2027 if signed (independently confirmed). Distinct from already-tracked companion-chatbot laws in Colorado (co-hb26-1263), Washington (wa-hb2225), and Hawaii (hi-sb3001-ai-disclosure-safety-act): this is New York's own separate statute, still pending gubernatorial action, and its enumerated 'unsafe features' list (sycophancy, cross-session personal-data retention, engagement-optimization overriding guardrails) is more granular than the disclosure-plus-crisis-protocol model used by those tracked laws. Explicitly flagged as an untracked lead in this dataset's own ny-fair-news-act entry notes.