Legislation Detail

Adds Bus. & Prof. Code Ch. 22.6 (Secs. 22601-22606). Operators must give a clear and conspicuous notice that the chatbot is artificially generated whenever a reasonable person could be misled into believing it is human, with additional disclosures and break reminders for known minors. Operators must maintain and publish a protocol to prevent production of suicidal-ideation, suicide or self-harm content and to refer users to crisis services. Beginning July 1, 2027, operators must report annually to the Office of Suicide Prevention on crisis-detection protocols.

Operators of companion chatbot platforms made available to users in California

Private right of action for injunctive relief and damages (reported at $1,000 per violation minimum plus attorney's fees) — private right of action described in law-firm summary

leginfo pages for SB 243 were not retrievable in this session (robots/timeouts); Chapter 677 and the 10/13/2025 chaptering date come from Digital Democracy's bill page and Skadden's alert. Effective date January 1, 2026 per Digital Policy Alert.