EveryAILaw.comCalifornia Companion Chatbot Safeguards (SB 243)
Obligations Covered
Timeline
| Milestone | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Approved by the Governor | Oct 13, 2025 | Chapter 677, Statutes of 2025 |
| Operative | Jan 1, 2026 | Standard California effective date; no urgency clause |
| Annual reporting begins | Jul 1, 2027 | First reports to the Office of Suicide Prevention (§ 22603) |
Related Regulations and Standards
Related instruments are selected from shared compliance obligations and jurisdiction coverage.
Companion Chatbot Disclosure
For an operator of a companion chatbot platform within § 22601(b) and (e), the artificiality-notice duty uses a reasonable-person test. Section 22601(b)(2) excludes specified customer-service, video-game, and voice-assistant interactions. The three-hour break reminder for known minors also constrains session flow.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Artificiality notice | Where a reasonable person interacting with the companion chatbot would be misled into believing they are interacting with a human, issue a clear and conspicuous notification that the chatbot is artificially generated and not human (§ 22602(a)) |
| Minor disclosure | For a user the operator knows is a minor, disclose that the user is interacting with artificial intelligence (§ 22602(c)(1)) |
| Three-hour break reminder | For known minors, provide by default a clear and conspicuous notification at least every three hours during continuing interactions, reminding the user to take a break and that the chatbot is artificially generated and not human (§ 22602(c)(2)) |
| Suitability disclosure | Disclose on the application, browser, or any other access format that companion chatbots may not be suitable for some minors (§ 22604) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Private right of action | A person who suffers injury in fact may sue for injunctive relief, damages of the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs (§ 22605) |
| Cumulative liability | The duties and remedies are cumulative to those imposed under other law and do not relieve an operator of any other obligation (§ 22606) |
Self-Harm Crisis Protocol
The duty is structured as a gate: without the protocol, the operator must prevent the chatbot from engaging with users. The operator must publish details of the protocol, not necessarily the full internal document (§ 22602(b)(2)).
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Protocol as a precondition | Prevent the companion chatbot from engaging with users unless the operator maintains a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content (§ 22602(b)(1)) |
| Crisis referral | The protocol must include notifying a user who expresses suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm and referring them to crisis service providers, including a suicide hotline or crisis text line (§ 22602(b)(1)) |
| Publication | Publish details of the protocol on the operator's internet website (§ 22602(b)(2)) |
| Minor sexual content | For a user known to be a minor, institute reasonable measures to prevent the chatbot from producing visual material of sexually explicit conduct or directly stating that the minor should engage in sexually explicit conduct (§ 22602(c)(3)) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Private right of action | Injunctive relief, the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs (§ 22605) |
Annual Crisis Referral Reporting
Reporting runs to a public-health body rather than a regulator, and the Office must publish the data, so the reports become a public dataset on how often companion chatbots encounter user self-harm. The § 22603(d) requirement to use evidence-based measurement methods means the counting methodology is itself regulated.
Requirements
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Annual report | Beginning 2027-07-01, report annually to the Office of Suicide Prevention (§ 22603(a)) |
| Referral counts | Report the number of crisis service provider referral notifications issued under § 22602 in the preceding calendar year (§ 22603(a)(1)) |
| Detection protocols | Report the protocols in place to detect, remove, and respond to instances of suicidal ideation by users (§ 22603(a)(2)) |
| Response prohibition protocols | Report the protocols in place to prohibit a companion chatbot response about suicidal ideation or actions with the user (§ 22603(a)(3)) |
| No personal data | The report must contain only the listed information and no identifiers or personal information about users (§ 22603(b)) |
| Evidence-based measurement | Use evidence-based methods for measuring suicidal ideation (§ 22603(d)) |
Penalties
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Private right of action | Injunctive relief, the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation, plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs (§ 22605) |
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Attribution: EveryAILaw, PAICE.work PBC. “California Companion Chatbot Safeguards (SB 243)”, EveryAILaw.com, Aug 2, 2026. https://everyailaw.com/regulation/california-sb243/
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