California SB-1119 Companion chatbots: children’s safety.

• Authority: California
• Parent authority: State governments
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. state and local documents
• Most recent activity: Proposed
• Most recent activity date: 2026-06-04

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
• Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation
• Overreliance and unsafe use
• Loss of human agency and autonomy
• Lack of capability or robustness

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

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• False or misleading information
• Lack of transparency or interpretability

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has good coverage of approximately 7-8 subdomains, with strong focus on toxic content exposure (1.2), overreliance and unsafe use (5.1), loss of agency and autonomy (5.2), fraud and manipulation (4.3), privacy compromise (2.1), lack of robustness (7.3), and lack of transparency (7.4). Coverage is concentrated in human-computer interaction, discrimination/toxicity, and AI system safety domains, specifically as they relate to children's safety with companion chatbots.

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.

• Health Care & Social Assistance

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

This document primarily governs the Information sector, specifically operators of companion chatbots that provide AI-powered conversational services. While companion chatbots could theoretically be deployed in various sectors, the regulation targets the entities that develop and operate these AI communication platforms, which are information service providers.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding California state statute enacted by the Legislature with mandatory obligations on operators, enforceable through civil penalties ($5,000-$15,000 per affected child), enforcement by the Attorney General and public prosecutors, and private rights of action.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: California State Legislature; The people of the State of California
• Summary: The document begins with the standard California legislative enactment clause indicating it was proposed and enacted by the California Legislature through the democratic process.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Developer, AI_Deployer
• Entities: Operators of companion chatbots (defined broadly as any person making companion chatbots available to users in California)
• Summary: The statute explicitly defines and targets 'operators' as persons who make companion chatbots available to users in the state, imposing comprehensive obligations on these entities including risk assessments, safety measures, parental controls, and audit requirements.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: California Attorney General; Public prosecutors; Independent auditors certified by the Attorney General
• Summary: The statute grants enforcement authority to the Attorney General (who adopts regulations, receives audit reports, certifies auditors, and issues annual reports) and public prosecutors (who may bring civil actions for violations with specified penalties).

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: California Attorney General; Independent auditors; Qualified researchers
• Summary: The Attorney General monitors compliance through receipt of annual audit reports and issuance of annual public reports summarizing findings, trends, and compliance rates. Independent auditors conduct annual compliance audits. Qualified researchers may access anonymized audit data for academic study.

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 comprehensively covers multiple AI lifecycle stages with primary focus on Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages. It addresses Plan and Design through requirements for protective design features and interface design. It covers Verify and Validate through mandatory annual audits and user testing. The Deploy stage is covered through requirements that take effect upon making chatbots available to California users. Operate and Monitor receives the most detailed coverage through ongoing crisis response protocols, incident reporting, parental controls, and continuous compliance monitoring.

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 addresses AI systems in the form of companion chatbots and artificial intelligence systems that generate conversational content. It does not reference specific technical categories like frontier AI, general purpose AI, foundation models, or compute thresholds. The focus is on the functional application (companion chatbots) rather than technical AI classifications.