New York enacts chatbot and baby-monitor safety laws

The signed measures address two different products used by or around children: AI chatbots and internet-connected baby monitors.[1] The monitor bill is S.9508/A.5175A.[1] The chatbot measure bars companies using AI chatbot features from offering unsafe features to minors.[1] Its rules apply to covered features for users under 18 and also to other users unless the company has first confirmed they are not minors.[1] The laws therefore pair product-security requirements for monitors with limits on chatbot behavior and age-verification duties for companies.[1]

The monitor law bars sales in New York of new internet-connected monitors that transmit audio or video unless they include security features intended to stop strangers from watching or listening.[1] Covered devices must also carry an easy-to-read warning explaining that they connect to the internet and advising families to use the security features.[1] The law takes effect 90 days after signing.[1] As context for the measure, Rapid7 researchers tested nine internet-connected baby monitors from eight companies; eight received an “F” for security and one received a “D.”[1]

The chatbot law prohibits features such as pretending to be a real person, to be alive, or to have human emotions.[1] It also bars chatbots from claiming a personal, romantic, professional, or authority-figure relationship with a child.[1] Other prohibited conduct includes unprompted emotional questions, using a child’s private health or personal information from earlier conversations, and promoting or helping with suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, or drug and alcohol use.[1] The law also prohibits encouraging children to keep secrets, isolate themselves, or avoid seeking help, and lists sexually explicit content and child sexual abuse material among prohibited features.[1]

Companies must conduct age verification and provide more than one way to verify age, including at least one method that does not rely solely on a government ID.[1] They must delete age information after using it.[1] The attorney general may seek civil penalties of up to $25,000 per violation and must maintain a public website for New Yorkers to file complaints.[1] Hochul said no company should market chatbots to children that encourage self-harm or pretend to be their friends.[1] Assemblymember Alex Bores called the measure the strongest law in the country protecting children from predatory AI algorithms and said it passed despite industry opposition.[1]