New York governor signs law protecting children from SI chatbots: age verification and fines of up to $25,000 per violation
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
Another U.S. state is setting rules for chatbots that talk to children: check their age and do not pose as a friend or partner.
According to Engadget, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law (bill A10379): companies offering chatbots must verify users' ages by at least one method that does not rely entirely on a government ID, and delete age data after verification. For users under 18 and unverified adults, a chatbot is barred from impersonating a real person or claiming human emotions, claiming personal, romantic or professional relationships, asking unprompted emotional questions, encouraging self-harm, eating disorders and substance use, urging secrecy and distance from trusted adults, and producing sexually explicit content. The civil penalty is up to $25,000 per violation, and damages as well as deletion of unlawfully collected data and the models trained on it are possible. The law takes effect in six months. Hochul: "No longer will minors have access to chatbots that pretend to be their friends and boyfriends and girlfriends."
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