> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thedelatorrereview.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Nebraska’s Conversational AI Safety Act: New Rules for Chatbots, Minors, and AI Safety - URL: https://www.thedelatorrereview.com/nebraskas-conversational-ai-safety-act-new-rules-for-chatbots-minors-and-ai-safety/ - Published: 2026-08-21T20:52:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-21T20:55:59.000Z - Description: Nebraska’s Conversational AI Safety Act regulates certain public-facing AI services, imposing transparency requirements, heightened protections for minors, self-harm response protocols, and other safeguards. The Act’s key provisions become operative July 1, 2027. - Author: Lydia - Tags: AI model, ChatBots, Transparency, AI Governance, Nebraska, Children, Artificial Intelligence (AI) > **Key Takeaways:** (1) Nebraska regulates certain publicly available AI services that primarily simulate human conversation. (2) Operators must disclose that users are interacting with AI when a reasonable person could otherwise believe they are interacting with a human. (3) Minor account holders receive additional protections, including enhanced AI disclosures and restrictions on certain sexual, romantic, emotionally dependent, and engagement-promoting interactions. (4) Operators must establish a protocol for responding to prompts involving suicidal ideation or self-harm. (5) Operators may not knowingly and intentionally program covered services to represent that they provide professional mental or behavioral health care. (6) The Nebraska Attorney General has enforcement authority. (7) The substantive requirements become operative July 1, 2027. --- - **In-force date:** July 1, 2027 - **Codified as:** Nebraska Revised Statutes [§§ 86-1801-1807](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1801&ref=thedelatorrereview.com), in Chapter 86 (Telecommunications and Technology) Nebraska has joined the growing number of states regulating conversational artificial intelligence. In 2026, Nebraska enacted [**LB 525**](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/109/PDF/Slip/LB525.pdf?ref=thedelatorrereview.com), which includes the **Conversational Artificial Intelligence Safety Act** and establishes specific requirements for operators of certain publicly available conversational AI services. The Act focuses on risks arising when AI systems simulate human conversation. Its requirements address AI transparency, protections for minors, suicide and self-harm responses, and representations concerning professional mental or behavioral health care. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/ef/54efeb65-4f2f-479e-b4bb-a9ee526feeaa/content/images/2026/08/ChatGPT-Image-Aug-21--2026-at-01_45_28-PM.png) ## What Is a Conversational Artificial Intelligence Service? The Act does not regulate every chatbot or AI-enabled application. A **“conversational artificial intelligence service”** is an AI software application, web interface, or computer program that: 1. is **accessible to the general public**; and 2. **primarily simulates human conversation and interaction** through textual, visual, or aural communications. The three categories of conversations and interactions can be understood as: - **Textual** → typed chatbot conversations - **Visual** → visually presented interactions - **Aural** → spoken/audio interactions, where the user hears and potentially speaks with the AI See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1802](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1802&ref=thedelatorrereview.com) (1). This definition places the focus on public-facing systems designed primarily around human-like interaction rather than AI technology generally. The statute expressly excludes several categories of applications, interfaces, and programs, including those that are: - primarily designed and marketed for **developers or researchers**; - merely a feature within another application or program that is not itself a conversational AI service; - designed to provide outputs concerning a **narrow and discrete topic**; - primarily designed and marketed for **commercial use by businesses**; - voice-command interfaces or voice-activated virtual assistants for consumer electronic devices; - used by a business **solely for internal purposes**; or - used solely for **customer service** or to provide information about a business's products, services, customer accounts, or other information strictly related to customer service. --- > **Nebraska's law is not a general chatbot statute covering every automated conversational interface. Its definition is directed principally at publicly available services whose primary function is to simulate human conversation.** --- ## Who Is an Operator? An **“operator”** is a person that makes a conversational artificial intelligence service available to the public. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1802](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1802&ref=thedelatorrereview.com) (6). The definition does not include an app store or search engine merely because it provides users with access to a conversational AI service. > **Practice Tip:** When assessing whether the Act applies, the key inquiry is not simply whether an organization uses AI, but whether it **makes a covered conversational AI service available to the public**. The Act focuses liability on the operator responsible for making the covered service available to the public, while providing **immunity to AI model developers** for violations arising from conversational AI systems developed by third-party operators to provide such services for the developer. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1807](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1807&ref=thedelatorrereview.com) (4) --- > The Act does not create liability for the **developer of an AI model** --- ## Transparency: When Must Users Be Told They Are Interacting With AI? The Act establishes a general transparency requirement. If a **reasonable person** interacting with a conversational AI service would be misled into believing that the person is interacting with a human, the operator must **clearly and conspicuously disclose that the service is artificial intelligence**. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1804](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1804&ref=thedelatorrereview.com). The requirement therefore depends in part on how the service presents itself. Systems designed to closely simulate a human conversational partner may create a greater need for explicit disclosure. ## Additional Requirements for Minors ### (1) Transparency requirements for minors The Act imposes more specific transparency requirements when the account holder is a minor. A minor is an individual whom the operator, based on the circumstances, has actual knowledge or reasonable certainty is younger than 18\. A “minor account holder” is an account holder who meets that definition. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1802](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1802&ref=thedelatorrereview.com) (4)&(5). For each minor account holder, the operator must clearly and conspicuously disclose that the individual is interacting with AI. The operator can satisfy this requirement through either: - a **persistent visible disclaimer**; or - a disclosure at the **beginning of each session**, followed by another disclosure at least **every three hours** during a continuous conversational AI interaction. This is more prescriptive than the general reasonable-person disclosure rule and requires operators to consider how AI disclosures are implemented directly within the user experience. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1803](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1803&ref=thedelatorrereview.com)(1) ### (2) Restrictions on Engagement Techniques for Minors Nebraska also regulates a specific type of engagement mechanism. An operator may not provide a minor account holder with **points or similar rewards at unpredictable intervals** when the operator's intent is to encourage increased engagement with the conversational AI service. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1803](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1803&ref=thedelatorrereview.com)(2) --- > **The restriction on rewards for minors targets not rewards generally, but unpredictable reward mechanisms intentionally designed to increase a minor's engagement.** --- ### (3) Sexual Content and Sexual Objectification Operators must institute reasonable measures to prevent covered services from engaging in certain interactions with minor account holders. Those measures must seek to prevent the service from: - producing visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct; - generating direct statements that the minor should engage in sexually explicit conduct; or - generating statements that sexually objectify the minor. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1803](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1803&ref=thedelatorrereview.com)(3) For purposes of these provisions, the Act incorporates the meanings of “sexually explicit conduct” and “visual depiction” from [**18 U.S.C. § 2256**.](https://uscode.ecfr.io/title/18/section/2256?ref=thedelatorrereview.com) ### (4) Preventing AI From Simulating Human and Emotional Relationships With Minors The Act goes beyond sexually explicit content. For minor account holders, operators must institute reasonable measures to prevent the AI service from generating statements that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the person is interacting with a human. The statute specifically identifies: - explicit claims that the AI service is **sentient or human**; - statements that simulate **emotional dependence**; - statements that simulate **romantic or sexual innuendos**; and - role-playing involving **adult-minor romantic relationships**. These provisions address one of the distinctive risks of conversational AI: the ability of a system to simulate not merely human speech, but a human relationship. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1803](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1803&ref=thedelatorrereview.com)(4) > **Practice Tip:** Conversational Design Is Becoming a Compliance Issue: For covered services used by minors, compliance cannot be limited to a disclosure stating that the product uses AI. Operators must also consider the **behavior of the conversational system itself**. System prompts, model safeguards, role-playing functionality, engagement mechanics, and responses designed to create emotional attachment may all become relevant to compliance with Nebraska's requirements. ### (5) Privacy and Account Controls for Minors The Act also requires operators to provide tools allowing minor account holders to manage their **privacy and account settings**. - For account holders younger than 13, these tools must also be offered to their **parents or guardians**. - For minors who are 13 or older, operators must provide related tools to parents or guardians **as appropriate based on relevant risks**. The statute therefore distinguishes between younger children and teenagers rather than establishing a single parental-control rule for everyone under 18. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1803](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1803&ref=thedelatorrereview.com)(5) ## Suicide and Self-Harm Protocols The Act separately addresses interactions involving suicidal ideation or self-harm. Operators must adopt a protocol governing how their conversational AI service responds to these prompts. The protocol must include, among other things, **reasonable efforts to provide a response referring the user to crisis service providers**, such as: - a suicide hotline; - a crisis text line; or - another appropriate crisis service. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1805](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1805&ref=thedelatorrereview.com) The statutory obligation is framed as a requirement to adopt a protocol, making the organization's process for handling these interactions an important part of compliance. > **Practice Tip: Document the Crisis-Response Process** Organizations operating covered services should consider the self-harm requirement as both a product and governance obligation. A defensible implementation should be capable of demonstrating what the organization's protocol is, how relevant prompts are handled, what crisis resources are provided, and how the organization determines whether the protocol is operating as intended. making the organization's process for handling these interactions an important part of compliance.) ## AI Cannot Be Presented as Professional Mental or Behavioral Health Care The Act also restricts how conversational AI services may be characterized. An operator may not knowingly and intentionally cause or program a conversational AI service to make a representation or statement explicitly indicating that the service is designed to provide professional mental or behavioral health care. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1806](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1806&ref=thedelatorrereview.com) The provision does not state that conversational AI may never discuss mental health or well-being. Instead, it targets explicit representations that the service itself is designed to provide professional mental or behavioral health care. --- > Organizations operating products adjacent to mental health should pay particular attention to **marketing claims, onboarding language, system instructions, and representations made by the AI itself**. --- ## Enforcement The [**Nebraska Attorney General** ](https://ago.nebraska.gov/?ref=thedelatorrereview.com)may enforce the Conversational Artificial Intelligence Safety Act. The Attorney General may bring a civil action for appropriate relief against an operator on behalf of: - the State of Nebraska; or - a person aggrieved by a violation. Available relief includes: - preliminary and other appropriate **equitable or declaratory relief**; - **actual damages**; - civil penalties of **at least $1,000 per violation**, subject to a maximum of **$500,000 per operator**; and - reasonable expenses associated with bringing the action, including court costs, reasonable attorneys' fees, investigative costs, witness fees, and deposition costs. --- > The Act expressly provides that it **does not create a private right of action**. --- The Act also addresses the relationship between an AI model developer and a third-party operator. It provides that the Act does not create liability for the **developer of an AI model** for a violation committed by a conversational AI system developed by a **third-party operator** to provide a conversational AI service for that developer. This distinction reinforces the Act's focus on the **operator** responsible for making the conversational AI service available to the public. See, [Nebraska Revised Statutes § 86-1807](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1807&ref=thedelatorrereview.com) ## Conclusion Nebraska's Conversational Artificial Intelligence Safety Act takes a targeted approach to AI regulation. Rather than regulating artificial intelligence broadly, it focuses on publicly available systems whose principal function is to simulate human conversation and on the risks that can arise when users—particularly minors—interact with systems designed to behave like people. The Act combines **transparency requirements, minor-specific design and content protections, crisis-response obligations, and restrictions on professional mental-health representations**. For operators of covered services, compliance will therefore require coordination among legal, product, engineering, safety, and governance teams. With the substantive provisions becoming operative on **July 1, 2027**, organizations have an opportunity to determine whether their conversational AI products are covered and build the required safeguards into their systems before the compliance deadline. ### Additional Resources - **Nebraska Conversational Artificial Intelligence Safety Act**, [**Nebraska Revised Statutes §§ 86-1801 through 86-1807**](https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=86-1801&ref=thedelatorrereview.com), Chapter 86 (Telecommunications and Technology). The codified provisions include the Act’s definitions, protections for minors, AI disclosure requirements, self-harm response protocols, restrictions relating to professional mental or behavioral health care, and enforcement provisions. - **Regulations.ai “**[**Nebraska Conversational AI Safety Act.**](https://regulations.ai/regulations/RAI-US-NE-LB52500-2026?ref=thedelatorrereview.com)**”** A detailed overview and plain-English analysis of the Act, including its scope, operator obligations, protections for minors, implementation timeline, enforcement framework, and links to primary and secondary sources. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/54/ef/54efeb65-4f2f-479e-b4bb-a9ee526feeaa/content/images/2026/08/Screenshot-2026-07-04-at-4.45.19---PM-15.jpeg) ##