Senate File 2417 (2026): requirements and guidelines for conversational AI services (Iowa Code chapter 554J)

Summary

Creates Iowa Code chapter 554J on public conversational AI services. Operators must tell minor account holders they are interacting with AI (persistently, or at the start of each interaction and every three hours), may not reward minors at unpredictable intervals to drive engagement, and must take reasonable measures against sexual content for minors and outputs suggesting the service is human, such as claims of sentience. Any user who could think the service is human must be told it is AI. Operators need suicide and self-harm protocols referring users to crisis services, may not present the service as licensed psychology or behavioural-health care, and face Attorney General enforcement.

Safety topics

Status notes

Passed the Senate 48-0 (24 Feb 2026) and the House 95-0 (15 Apr 2026); signed 2 May 2026. The bill history gives an effective date of 1 Jul 2026 for the Act and an applicability date of 1 Jul 2027 for its requirements (Section 7). Formerly SSB 3011. Operators must also offer minors tools to manage their privacy and account settings, and offer such tools to parents of minors under 13 and as the risks require. Violations bring an injunction and liability for the greater of actual damages or a civil penalty of USD 1,000 per violation, up to USD 500,000 per operator. The Attorney General enforces the chapter and adopts rules; it creates no private right of action, and an AI model developer is not liable solely because a third party used its model to build a conversational AI service.

Sources

Open the official source https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/LGE/91/SF2417.pdf

Secondary source: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/billTracking/billHistory?billName=SF2417&ga=91

Local copy

Verification

History

1. 2026-10-18notes: Passed the Senate 48-0 (24 Feb 2026) and the House 95-0 (15 Apr 2026); signed 2 → Passed the Senate 48-0 (24 Feb 2026) and the House 95-0 (15 Apr 2026); signed 2 — adds the privacy and parental tools, the penalties, Attorney General enforcement and rule-making, the absence of a private right of action and the developer clause, all from the enrolled text2026-10-18-recheck-americas-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2. 2026-10-18safety_topics: ["child safety", "transparency & labelling", "accountability & liability", "huma → ["child safety", "transparency & labelling", "accountability & liability", "proh — 'human oversight' replaced by 'prohibited practices': the Act sets no human-oversight duty, but it bans rewards at unpredictable intervals for minors and representations that the service provides licensed psychology or behavioural-health services2026-10-18-recheck-americas-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
3. 2026-10-18summary: Creates Iowa Code chapter 554J on conversational AI services. Operators must cle → Creates Iowa Code chapter 554J on public conversational AI services. Operators m — rewritten from the enrolled text: adds the duties toward minors the old summary left out (no rewards at unpredictable intervals, reasonable measures against sexual content and against outputs suggesting the service is human); penalty amounts moved to notes to stay within 700 characters2026-10-18-recheck-americas-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

Nebraska Conversational AI Safety Act (LB 525) Nebraska (US) · Adopted, not yet in force

Idaho Conversational AI Safety Act (SB 1297) Idaho (US) · Adopted, not yet in force

Georgia AI companion chatbot law (SB 540) Georgia (US) · Adopted, not yet in force

California SB 243 (companion chatbots) California (US) · In force

Citation

Iowa General Assembly (91st GA, 2026 session; Senate Committee on Technology); signed by Governor Kim Reynolds. Senate File 2417 (2026): requirements and guidelines for conversational AI services (Iowa Code chapter 554J) [Senate File 2417 (91st General Assembly); 2026 Iowa Acts, chapter 1068; Iowa Code chapter 554J]. 2026-05-02. https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/publications/LGE/91/SF2417.pdf. Status: Adopted, not yet in force; verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/US-IA-01/2026-10-12/official.pdf retrieved 2026-10-12 04:49:02 UTC, SHA-256 cf4ce22b6cc0f0f8880a3e9e6ea76b5b7e3a2d6b1305ddd1f1367d59cc5264d0. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record US-IA-01.

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