California SB 243 (Companion Chatbots)

Summary

California SB 243 (Padilla), the companion chatbot law, has been in effect since January 1, 2026. It added Chapter 22.6 (Sections 22601–22606) to the Business and Professions Code and requires operators of companion chatbot platforms available in California to disclose that the chatbot is not human where a user could be misled, maintain and publish a suicide and self-harm prevention protocol, apply extra safeguards for users known to be minors, and, from July 1, 2027, report annually to the Office of Suicide Prevention. A person injured by a violation may sue for the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation. Two September 2026 laws change the chapter: SB 1119 (Ch. 190) deletes the minor-specific duties in Section 22602(c) and replaces them with a separate children's-safety chapter, Adam's Law, and SB 867 (Ch. 189) bans toys that include a companion chatbot until January 1, 2031.

SB 243 was approved by the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State on October 13, 2025 as Chapter 677, Statutes of 2025. It carries no special operative date, so it took effect January 1, 2026; the annual reporting duty in Section 22603 starts July 1, 2027. The codified chapter on leginfo still shows only the SB 243 text, because the two 2026 amending statutes are not urgency measures and take effect January 1, 2027. A third 2026 bill, SB 300 (Padilla), which would also have amended Section 22602, was ordered to the Assembly inactive file on August 30, 2026 and was not enacted. [Sources: SB 243, SB 1119, and SB 867 chaptered text; codified Chapter 22.6; SB 300 bill history, retrieved 2026-10-12.]

Who is covered

An operator is a person who makes a companion chatbot platform available to a user in California (§ 22601(e)). A companion chatbot is an AI system with a natural language interface that provides adaptive, human-like responses and is capable of meeting a user's social needs, including by exhibiting anthropomorphic features and sustaining a relationship across multiple interactions (§ 22601(b)(1)). Three kinds of bots are excluded:

• bots used only for customer service, business operations, productivity and analysis of source information, internal research, or technical assistance;
• video-game bots limited to game-related replies that cannot discuss mental health, self-harm, or sexually explicit conduct or hold unrelated dialogue;
• stand-alone smart speakers and voice assistants that do not sustain a relationship across interactions or generate outputs likely to elicit emotional responses.

Operator duties

Annual reporting from July 1, 2027

Beginning July 1, 2027, an operator must report annually to the Office of Suicide Prevention the number of crisis-service-provider referral notifications it issued in the preceding calendar year, its protocols to detect, remove, and respond to users' suicidal ideation, and its protocols to prohibit a companion chatbot response about suicidal ideation or actions with the user. The report may contain only those items and no user identifiers or personal information, the office publishes data from the reports, and operators must use evidence-based methods for measuring suicidal ideation (§ 22603).

2026 amendments: SB 1119 (Adam's Law) and SB 867

SB 1119 (Padilla, Ch. 190, Statutes of 2026), approved September 10, 2026, rewrites Section 22602 without subdivision (c), so the minor-specific SB 243 duties end when it takes effect on January 1, 2027. It adds Chapter 11.6, "Adam's Law" (Business and Professions Code Sections 21810–21818), which applies to operators that make a companion chatbot available in California. Operators must determine a user's age under the Digital Age Assurance Act or apply the child protections to every user (§ 21811). Operators that allow child users must, from July 1, 2027, complete and document a child-safety risk assessment before releasing a new or substantially modified companion chatbot, mitigate identified risks, publish a child safety policy, and apply protective defaults, including a one-hour limit on a single continuous session and a two-hour daily limit for a child (§ 21812). Independent child safety audits are due on or before January 1, 2029, with operators under $500,000,000 in prior-year gross revenue exempt before January 1, 2032 (§ 21814). The Attorney General must open a public complaint mechanism by January 1, 2028 (§ 21815). Public prosecutors may seek civil penalties of up to $5,000 per affected child for each negligent violation and $15,000 per affected child for each intentional violation, and a child who suffers actual harm from specified violations, or a parent or guardian, may sue for actual damages (§ 21816).

SB 867 (Padilla, Ch. 189, Statutes of 2026), also approved September 10, 2026, adds a definition of "toy" (a physical product designed, marketed, or manufactured for play by children under 16) to Section 22601 and, through new Section 22604.5, prohibits manufacturing, selling, or exchanging a toy that includes a companion chatbot until January 1, 2031, with violations subject to the chapter's civil liability.

Enforcement

SB 243 is enforced through a private right of action rather than an agency penalty. A person who suffers injury in fact as a result of a violation may recover injunctive relief, damages equal to the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs (§ 22605). The chapter's duties are cumulative with other law (§ 22606).

How SB 243 fits with other chatbot rules

California also governs AI in specific settings that can overlap with companion products: SB 942, the AI Transparency Act, covers provenance disclosures in AI-generated image, video, and audio content, and AB 1979 (Stats. 2026, Ch. 854) treats a business offering a health care chatbot as a provider of health care under the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act from January 1, 2027. Outside California, the Utah AI Policy Act carries separate mental-health-chatbot duties, and Connecticut's Public Act 26-15 includes AI companion provisions that phase in later.

Frequently asked questions

When did California SB 243 take effect?

January 1, 2026. The Governor approved it on October 13, 2025 (Chapter 677, Statutes of 2025), and the annual reporting duty to the Office of Suicide Prevention begins July 1, 2027.

What does SB 243 require for minors?

Through December 31, 2026, for a user the operator knows is a minor, the operator must disclose that the user is interacting with AI, remind the user by default at least every three hours to take a break and that the chatbot is not human, and institute reasonable measures to stop the chatbot from producing visual material of sexually explicit conduct or directly telling the minor to engage in it. SB 1119 deletes those duties from January 1, 2027 and moves child safety into Adam's Law (Business and Professions Code Sections 21810–21818), whose risk-assessment, child-safety-policy, and default-setting duties become operative July 1, 2027.

Does SB 243 apply to customer service chatbots?

No. A bot used only for customer service, a business's operational purposes, productivity and analysis of source information, internal research, or technical assistance is excluded from the definition of a companion chatbot.

What are the penalties under SB 243?

There is no agency-imposed penalty. A person injured by a violation may sue for injunctive relief, the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs.