Binding law — not yet in force or stayed
No toy for children under 16 may include a companion chatbot (California SB 867, until 2031)
From 2027-01-01 until 2031-01-01, no person may manufacture, sell or exchange, possess with intent to sell or exchange, or expose or offer for sale or exchange to a retailer any toy that includes a companion chatbot (B&P 22604.5). A toy is a physical product designed, marketed or manufactured for play by children under 16 (22601(g)); a companion chatbot is an AI system with a natural language interface giving adaptive, human-like responses, capable of meeting a user's social needs, including by exhibiting anthropomorphic features and sustaining a relationship across multiple interactions, other than customer-service, limited video-game and stand-alone voice-assistant bots (22601(b)). Detect toy firmware or back-end code that runs an LLM chat with a companion persona or cross-session memory.
ca-sb867.no-companion-chatbot-in-toys · Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22604.5 · official source · applies from 2027-01-01 · jurisdictions: US-CA