Binding law — in force
Companion chatbots must have a self-harm crisis protocol
An operator must prevent a companion chatbot from engaging with users unless it maintains a protocol to prevent producing suicidal-ideation/suicide/self-harm content, including a notification referring at-risk users to crisis service providers (suicide hotline / crisis text line) when a user expresses such ideation; the protocol must be published on the operator's website. Detect a companion-chatbot path with no crisis-detection/referral hook.
ca-sb243.companion-bot-crisis-protocol · Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22602(b) · official source · jurisdictions: US-CA
Binding law — in force
Companion chatbots must disclose they are not human
If a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot would be misled to believe they are dealing with a human, the operator must issue a clear and conspicuous notification that the chatbot is artificially generated and not human. Detect a companion-chatbot interaction path with no non-human disclosure. (Companion chatbot = adaptive, human-like AI that sustains a relationship across interactions; excludes customer-service bots, limited video-game NPCs, and voice assistants.)
ca-sb243.companion-bot-disclosure · Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22602(a) · official source · jurisdictions: US-CA
Binding law — in force
Companion chatbots must apply minor safeguards for users the operator knows are minors (California)
Under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22602(c), for a user the operator knows is a minor, the operator must disclose that the user is interacting with AI, by default remind the user at least every three hours during continuing companion-chatbot interactions to take a break and that the chatbot is artificially generated and not human, and 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. Detect companion-chatbot paths where an age signal the product holds never selects a minor profile.
ca-sb243.known-minor-safeguards · Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22602(c) · official source · jurisdictions: US-CA
Binding law — in force
Companion chatbot platforms must disclose that companion chatbots may not be suitable for some minors (California)
Under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22604, an operator must disclose to users of its companion chatbot platform, on the application, the browser, or any other format through which users reach the platform, that companion chatbots may not be suitable for some minors. Unlike 22602(c), this applies to every user, not only known minors. Detect a companion chatbot app, web client or other access surface with no such disclosure.
ca-sb243.minor-suitability-disclosure · Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22604 · official source · jurisdictions: US-CA