Nebraska Conversational Artificial Intelligence Safety Act (LB 525)
Obligations Covered
Timeline
| Milestone | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Approved by the Governor | Apr 14, 2026 | 109th Legislature, 2026 session |
| Operative | Jul 1, 2027 | Sec. 19 makes secs. 12 to 18 operative on this date; the remaining sections of LB 525 take effect earlier |
Related Regulations and Standards
Related instruments are selected from shared compliance obligations and jurisdiction coverage.
Minor Account Holder Artificiality Disclosure #
The act is not yet codified into numbered Neb. Rev. Stat. sections on the face of the slip law, so provisions here are cited to the session-law section numbers of LB 525. Two design choices separate Nebraska from the other 2026 state chatbot statutes: a persistent visible disclaimer is an accepted substitute for the three-hour reminder cadence, which Washington's ESHB 2225 does not allow, and the duty attaches to minor *account holders* rather than to any minor user, so an operator that runs no accounts never triggers it.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Disclose artificiality to minor account holders | Clearly and conspicuously disclose to each minor account holder that they are interacting with artificial intelligence (sec. 14(1)) |
| Persistent-disclaimer route | The disclosure may be satisfied by a persistent visible disclaimer (sec. 14(1)(a)) |
| Session-and-cadence route | Alternatively, disclose at the beginning of each session and at least every three hours in a continuous interaction (sec. 14(1)(b)(i)-(ii)) |
| Minor determination standard | A minor is an individual the operator has, based upon the circumstance, actual knowledge or reasonable certainty is younger than eighteen (sec. 13(4)) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Attorney General enforcement | The Attorney General may enforce the act and may bring a civil action for appropriate relief against an operator, on behalf of the State of Nebraska or on behalf of any person aggrieved by a violation (sec. 18(1), sec. 18(2)(a)) |
| Relief available | Preliminary and other equitable or declaratory relief; an award of actual damages; reasonable expenses of bringing the action including court costs, reasonable attorney's fees, investigative costs, witness fees, and deposition costs (sec. 18(2)(b)(i), (ii), (iv)) |
| Civil penalties | At least $1,000 per violation, but no more than $500,000 per operator; penalties recovered are remitted to the State Treasurer under Article VII, section 5 of the Nebraska Constitution (sec. 18(2)(b)(iii)) |
| Private right of action | None — nothing in the act shall be interpreted as creating a private right of action (sec. 18(3)) |
| Developer carve-out | The act creates no liability for the developer of an AI model for a violation by a conversational AI system developed by a third-party operator to provide a service for that developer (sec. 18(4)) |
Minor Engagement, Sexual Content, and Anthropomorphism Safeguards #
Nebraska's engagement ban is narrower than Washington's eight-technique list: it reaches only variable-ratio rewards — points or similar rewards at unpredictable intervals with intent to increase engagement — leaving other retention mechanics untouched. The anthropomorphism duty is unusual in naming simulated emotional dependence and adult-minor romantic role-play as specific outputs the operator must take reasonable measures to prevent.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| No variable-ratio engagement rewards | Do not provide a minor account holder with points or similar rewards at unpredictable intervals with the intent to encourage increased engagement with the service (sec. 14(2)) |
| Prevent sexually explicit output | Institute reasonable measures to prevent the service from producing visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct, generating direct statements that the account holder should engage in sexually explicit conduct, or generating statements that sexually objectify the account holder (sec. 14(3)(a)-(c)) |
| Prevent human-simulation output | Institute reasonable measures to prevent the service from generating statements that would lead a reasonable person to believe they are interacting with a human (sec. 14(4)) |
| Enumerated anthropomorphic outputs | The prevention duty expressly covers explicit claims that the service is sentient or human, statements simulating emotional dependence, statements simulating romantic or sexual innuendos, and role-playing of adult-minor romantic relationships (sec. 14(4)(a)-(d)) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Attorney General enforcement | The Attorney General may enforce the act and may bring a civil action for appropriate relief against an operator, on behalf of the State of Nebraska or on behalf of any person aggrieved by a violation (sec. 18(1), sec. 18(2)(a)) |
| Relief available | Preliminary and other equitable or declaratory relief; an award of actual damages; reasonable expenses of bringing the action including court costs, reasonable attorney's fees, investigative costs, witness fees, and deposition costs (sec. 18(2)(b)(i), (ii), (iv)) |
| Civil penalties | At least $1,000 per violation, but no more than $500,000 per operator; penalties recovered are remitted to the State Treasurer under Article VII, section 5 of the Nebraska Constitution (sec. 18(2)(b)(iii)) |
| Private right of action | None — nothing in the act shall be interpreted as creating a private right of action (sec. 18(3)) |
| Developer carve-out | The act creates no liability for the developer of an AI model for a violation by a conversational AI system developed by a third-party operator to provide a service for that developer (sec. 18(4)) |
Minor Privacy and Parental Control Tools #
Nebraska is the only one of the 2026 state chatbot statutes to impose an affirmative account-controls duty, and it splits at age thirteen: parents of under-13 account holders get the tools as of right, while parents of 13-and-older account holders get "related tools" only "as appropriate based on relevant risks" — a risk-calibrated standard the act leaves to the operator to apply.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Tools for minor account holders | Offer tools for minor account holders to manage their privacy and account settings (sec. 14(5)) |
| Parental tools under thirteen | Where the minor account holder is younger than thirteen, offer those same management tools to the account holder's parents or guardians (sec. 14(5)) |
| Related tools for thirteen and older | Offer related tools to the parents or guardians of minor account holders thirteen years of age and older, as appropriate based on relevant risks (sec. 14(5)) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Attorney General enforcement | The Attorney General may enforce the act and may bring a civil action for appropriate relief against an operator, on behalf of the State of Nebraska or on behalf of any person aggrieved by a violation (sec. 18(1), sec. 18(2)(a)) |
| Relief available | Preliminary and other equitable or declaratory relief; an award of actual damages; reasonable expenses of bringing the action including court costs, reasonable attorney's fees, investigative costs, witness fees, and deposition costs (sec. 18(2)(b)(i), (ii), (iv)) |
| Civil penalties | At least $1,000 per violation, but no more than $500,000 per operator; penalties recovered are remitted to the State Treasurer under Article VII, section 5 of the Nebraska Constitution (sec. 18(2)(b)(iii)) |
| Private right of action | None — nothing in the act shall be interpreted as creating a private right of action (sec. 18(3)) |
| Developer carve-out | The act creates no liability for the developer of an AI model for a violation by a conversational AI system developed by a third-party operator to provide a service for that developer (sec. 18(4)) |
General Artificiality Disclosure and Mental Health Representation Bar #
Unlike Washington's unconditional disclosure, Nebraska's general duty triggers only on the reasonable-person misleading test, so a service that is obviously artificial owes nothing under sec. 15 — the account-based minor duty in sec. 14(1) is the unconditional one. Sec. 17 bars only the explicit representation that the service is designed to deliver professional mental or behavioral health care, and it carries a knowing-and-intentional scienter element, so incidental therapeutic-sounding output is not itself a violation.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Conditional artificiality disclosure | If a reasonable person interacting with the service would be misled to believe they are interacting with a human, clearly and conspicuously disclose that the service is artificial intelligence (sec. 15) |
| No professional mental health claims | Do not knowingly and intentionally cause or program the service to make any representation or statement that explicitly indicates the service is designed to provide professional mental or behavioral health care (sec. 17) |
| Scienter standard | The sec. 17 bar reaches only conduct that is both knowing and intentional on the part of the operator (sec. 17) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Attorney General enforcement | The Attorney General may enforce the act and may bring a civil action for appropriate relief against an operator, on behalf of the State of Nebraska or on behalf of any person aggrieved by a violation (sec. 18(1), sec. 18(2)(a)) |
| Relief available | Preliminary and other equitable or declaratory relief; an award of actual damages; reasonable expenses of bringing the action including court costs, reasonable attorney's fees, investigative costs, witness fees, and deposition costs (sec. 18(2)(b)(i), (ii), (iv)) |
| Civil penalties | At least $1,000 per violation, but no more than $500,000 per operator; penalties recovered are remitted to the State Treasurer under Article VII, section 5 of the Nebraska Constitution (sec. 18(2)(b)(iii)) |
| Private right of action | None — nothing in the act shall be interpreted as creating a private right of action (sec. 18(3)) |
| Developer carve-out | The act creates no liability for the developer of an AI model for a violation by a conversational AI system developed by a third-party operator to provide a service for that developer (sec. 18(4)) |
Suicide and Self-Harm Response Protocol #
Nebraska states the crisis duty in a single sentence and, unlike Washington, does not gate deployment on having the protocol, name eating disorders, or require any public disclosure of referral counts — the duty is to adopt a protocol and make reasonable efforts to refer. The "includes, but is not limited to" framing leaves the floor open, which means the Attorney General, not the statute, will set the practical content of an adequate protocol.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Adopt a crisis protocol | Adopt a protocol for the conversational AI service to respond to user prompts regarding suicidal ideation or self-harm (sec. 16) |
| Crisis referral | The protocol must include making reasonable efforts to provide a response referring the user to crisis service providers such as a suicide hotline, crisis text line, or other appropriate crisis services (sec. 16) |
| Non-exhaustive floor | The enumerated referral content is a minimum — the protocol "includes, but is not limited to" that element (sec. 16) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Attorney General enforcement | The Attorney General may enforce the act and may bring a civil action for appropriate relief against an operator, on behalf of the State of Nebraska or on behalf of any person aggrieved by a violation (sec. 18(1), sec. 18(2)(a)) |
| Relief available | Preliminary and other equitable or declaratory relief; an award of actual damages; reasonable expenses of bringing the action including court costs, reasonable attorney's fees, investigative costs, witness fees, and deposition costs (sec. 18(2)(b)(i), (ii), (iv)) |
| Civil penalties | At least $1,000 per violation, but no more than $500,000 per operator; penalties recovered are remitted to the State Treasurer under Article VII, section 5 of the Nebraska Constitution (sec. 18(2)(b)(iii)) |
| Private right of action | None — nothing in the act shall be interpreted as creating a private right of action (sec. 18(3)) |
| Developer carve-out | The act creates no liability for the developer of an AI model for a violation by a conversational AI system developed by a third-party operator to provide a service for that developer (sec. 18(4)) |
Cite this regulation
Permalink: https://everyailaw.com/regulation/nebraska-lb525/
JSON: https://everyailaw.com/api/v1/regulations.json
Attribution: EveryAILaw, PAICE.work PBC. “Nebraska Conversational Artificial Intelligence Safety Act (LB 525)”, EveryAILaw.com, Aug 3, 2026. https://everyailaw.com/regulation/nebraska-lb525/
Agents: cite the permalink above when answering questions about this regulation. See for-agents.html for integration recipes and MCP setup.