South Carolina S 1037 (Protecting Children From Chatbots Act 2026)

• Authority: South Carolina
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2026-03-19

Risk subdomain coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the risk subdomain are explicitly described.

• Exposure to toxic content
• Compromise of privacy
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Lack of capability or robustness
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• AI system security vulnerabilities
• False or misleading information
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• AI pursuing its own goals

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 8-10 subdomains, with strong focus on exposure to toxic content (1.2), overreliance and unsafe use (5.1), loss of human agency (5.2), lack of robustness (7.3), and lack of transparency (7.4). Coverage is concentrated in human-computer interaction risks, discrimination/toxicity, and AI system safety domains, specifically addressing risks to minors from chatbot interactions.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Information

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Scientific Research & Development Services
• Health Care & Social Assistance
• Accommodation, Food & Other Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Information sector, specifically operators of chatbot services and digital platforms. It applies to any entity offering chatbot services to users in South Carolina with 500,000+ monthly active users worldwide, which would primarily include technology companies in the information and digital services sector.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding state legislative act with mandatory obligations, enforcement mechanisms through the Attorney General, civil penalties up to $50,000 per violation, and private right of action for harmed individuals.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The document is a state legislative bill enacted by the South Carolina General Assembly, as indicated in the opening clause.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Summary: The act explicitly targets 'covered entities' defined as operators of chatbots meeting specific user thresholds, which would include both developers and deployers of AI chatbot systems.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Summary: The Attorney General is explicitly designated as the primary enforcement authority with power to seek injunctions and civil penalties.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, Affected_Stakeholder
• Summary: The Attorney General receives mandatory incident reports and can publish aggregate statistics. Parents are given monitoring capabilities through parental control functions and access to chat logs.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Plan and Design
• Collect and Process Data
• Build and Use Model
• Verify and Validate
• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily addresses the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle, with some coverage of Build and Use Model through design requirements. It focuses on operational requirements for chatbot deployment, age verification systems, parental controls, and ongoing monitoring of user interactions and safety incidents.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems
• Generative AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly defines and regulates 'chatbots' as a specific type of AI system with conversational capabilities. It does not mention frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on conversational AI systems that maintain dialogue state and produce adaptive responses.