EveryAILaw.comDoes California Companion Chatbot Safeguards (SB 243) require Risk Assessment?
California • enforcing
Yes — 1 provision
Requirements at a glance
This regulation imposes 4 specific requirements for Risk Assessment across 1 provision:
- 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)). This is the original SB 243 clause; SB 1119 Section 1 omits subdivision (c), but the rewrite's operative timing is not established here.
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)). The minor sexual-content row below describes Section 22602(c)(3) as chaptered by SB 243 in 2025. Retained SB 1119 Section 1 rewrites Section 22602 without subdivision (c); its operative timing is not established here. The separately added Section 21812 expressly becomes operative July 1, 2027, with distinct child-user scope and remedies; it is not treated here as a one-for-one replacement. Existing status and date fields remain unchanged and do not decide that transition.
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)). This is the original SB 243 clause; SB 1119 Section 1 omits subdivision (c), but the rewrite's operative timing is not established here. |
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) |