California Companion Chatbot Law (SB 243)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, California
level: state
domain: safety
status: in-effect
scope: Regulates operators of 'companion chatbots' (AI systems with a natural-language interface that provides adaptive, human-like responses and is capable of meeting a user's social needs) made available to California users; the first US state law specifically targeting AI companion chatbots.
obligations: Operators must issue a clear and conspicuous notification that the chatbot is AI, not human, if a reasonable person could be misled; must maintain and publish protocols to prevent the chatbot from producing suicidal-ideation/self-harm content and to refer users expressing such ideation to crisis services; for known minors, must additionally disclose the AI nature of the interaction, provide break reminders every three hours, and prevent sexually explicit material or statements; must notify users the chatbot may be unsuitable for some minors; beginning in 2027, must annually report crisis-referral instances and safeguard details to the Office of Suicide Prevention.
effectiveDate: 2026-01-01
enactedDate: 2025-10-13
penalties: Private right of action for a person who suffers injury in fact: injunctive relief, damages (greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation), and attorney's fees.
appliesTo: operators of companion chatbot platforms accessible to California users, with heightened duties toward users the operator knows are minors
officialUrl: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB243
notes: Signed by Governor Newsom on October 13, 2025 as Chapter 677 (Business and Professions Code Chapter 22.6). This agent's own primary-text fetch described some obligations as 'effective upon enactment (October 13, 2025)' rather than January 1, 2026; effectiveDate is nonetheless recorded as 2026-01-01 per California's standard January 1 operative-date convention for statutes without their own effective-date clause, corroborated by multiple secondary legal-alert sources -- flagging the primary-fetch phrasing discrepancy rather than silently picking one. The annual Office of Suicide Prevention reporting duty begins July 1, 2027. Distinct from co-hb26-1263 (Colorado, signed May 2026), wa-hb2225 (Washington, enacted 2026), and hi-sb3001-ai-disclosure-safety-act (Hawaii, signed July 2026): SB 243 is California's own, earlier-enacted statute and the direct template those later laws followed. Also distinct from the still-pending ca-sb1119 candidate below, which would add child-specific session-limit, ephemeral-mode, and age-verification duties on top of this law's baseline framework.

Properties

jurisdiction

US, California

level

state

domain

safety

status

in-effect

scope

Regulates operators of 'companion chatbots' (AI systems with a natural-language interface that provides adaptive, human-like responses and is capable of meeting a user's social needs) made available to California users; the first US state law specifically targeting AI companion chatbots.

obligations

Operators must issue a clear and conspicuous notification that the chatbot is AI, not human, if a reasonable person could be misled; must maintain and publish protocols to prevent the chatbot from producing suicidal-ideation/self-harm content and to refer users expressing such ideation to crisis services; for known minors, must additionally disclose the AI nature of the interaction, provide break reminders every three hours, and prevent sexually explicit material or statements; must notify users the chatbot may be unsuitable for some minors; beginning in 2027, must annually report crisis-referral instances and safeguard details to the Office of Suicide Prevention.

effectiveDate

2026-01-01

enactedDate

2025-10-13

penalties

Private right of action for a person who suffers injury in fact: injunctive relief, damages (greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation), and attorney's fees.

appliesTo

operators of companion chatbot platforms accessible to California users, with heightened duties toward users the operator knows are minors

officialUrl

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB243

notes

Signed by Governor Newsom on October 13, 2025 as Chapter 677 (Business and Professions Code Chapter 22.6). This agent's own primary-text fetch described some obligations as 'effective upon enactment (October 13, 2025)' rather than January 1, 2026; effectiveDate is nonetheless recorded as 2026-01-01 per California's standard January 1 operative-date convention for statutes without their own effective-date clause, corroborated by multiple secondary legal-alert sources -- flagging the primary-fetch phrasing discrepancy rather than silently picking one. The annual Office of Suicide Prevention reporting duty begins July 1, 2027. Distinct from co-hb26-1263 (Colorado, signed May 2026), wa-hb2225 (Washington, enacted 2026), and hi-sb3001-ai-disclosure-safety-act (Hawaii, signed July 2026): SB 243 is California's own, earlier-enacted statute and the direct template those later laws followed. Also distinct from the still-pending ca-sb1119 candidate below, which would add child-specific session-limit, ephemeral-mode, and age-verification duties on top of this law's baseline framework.