EveryAILaw.comDoes California Companion Chatbot Safeguards (SB 243) require Incident Reporting?
California • enforcing
Yes — 1 provision
Requirements at a glance
This regulation imposes 6 specific requirements for Incident Reporting across 1 provision:
- 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))
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) |