Rhode Island Children’s Privacy Laws (2026)

S 2500 Substitute A as amended (P.L. 2024 ch. 430) / H 7787 Substitute A as amended (P.L. 2024 ch. 453); R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 6-48.1

In force · Privacy law (minors) · effective 2026-01-01 · binds operators

Ages: Known children under 13 (per COPPA); no separate teen 13-17 protections

Requires: Personal data collected from a known child (under 13, as COPPA defines 'child') is sensitive data, so a controller may not process it unless consent is obtained and the data is processed in accordance with COPPA; controllers and processors that comply with COPPA's verifiable-parental-consent requirements are deemed compliant with the Act's parental-consent obligation. A known child's parent or legal guardian may exercise the child's customer rights on the child's behalf. The RIDTPPA sets no separate protections for teens 13-17: no opt-in for targeted advertising, sale, or profiling beyond the opt-out rights every customer has.

Timing: enacted 2024-06-28 as P.L. 2024 ch. 430 (S 2500 Sub A as amended) and 2024-06-29 as ch. 453 (H 7787 Sub A as amended); the Public Laws chapter headers record enactment, not whether the Governor signed, so no signed date is asserted; effective 2026-01-01

Entry last reviewed 2026-10-01

S 2195 Substitute A as amended (Public Laws 2026 ch. 376; identical House companion H 7350 Substitute A as amended is ch. 375); R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 6-64

Enacted, not yet effective · AI companion · effective 2027-01-01 · binds operators

Ages: All users, age neutral: the enacted text contains no minor-specific provision

AI chatbot access for minors: Safeguards only (enacted, applies from 2027-01-01).

Requires: Operators of an 'AI companion' (a system that simulates a sustained human-like relationship by retaining prior-interaction information to personalize engagement, asking unprompted emotion-based questions, and sustaining ongoing dialogue on matters personal to the user; all three prongs required, and customer-service, efficiency, research or technical-assistance, and internal-only systems are excluded) must give every user a clear and conspicuous notification, verbal or written, that they are not communicating with a human, at the start of any companion interaction and at least every three hours while it continues. It is unlawful to provide an AI companion without a protocol for user expressions of possible suicidal ideation, self-harm or physical harm to others that refers the user to crisis services such as a suicide hotline or crisis text line as soon as such an expression is detected, and from 2027-07-01 operators must file annual reports with the Attorney General on safety-protocol activations and related metrics, which the AG publishes in aggregate. Enforced by the Attorney General, with civil penalties up to $15,000 per day directed to suicide prevention programs; the chapter creates no private right of action. The introduced bill's 16-point 'unable to feel human emotion' notice, financial-harm prong and private right of action were all stripped before enactment, yet the Legislative Council explanation printed on the passed version still describes the human-emotions notice and the financial-harm prong; the enacted chapter contains none of them, and no age line of any kind.

Timing: enacted 2026-06-22 (the Public Laws chapter headers for ch. 376 and ch. 375 record enactment, not whether the Governor signed, so no signed date is asserted); effective 2027-01-01

Litigation: None. Not challenged.

Entry last reviewed 2026-10-01