Nation’s Strongest Chatbot Protections for Children Advance in California Legislature

CONTACT: [email protected] for Senator Padilla
[email protected] for Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan
[email protected] for Assemblymember Wicks

SACRAMENTO - This week, several key committees approved and advanced Senate Bill 1119 and Assembly Bill 2023 authored by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego) and Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda). The bills strengthen California's nation-leading chatbot safeguards for children and establish a comprehensive regulatory framework to address the risk of prolonged chatbot interactions by children.

"When a conversation between children and a chatbot goes wrong, the consequences can be dire," said Senator Padilla. "We have seen the consequences of our inaction towards the dangers posed by social media, and the stakes are too high to make the same mistakes again. We need to strengthen our landmark protections to make certain our children are safe."

"I'm the mom of two little girls, and that motivates my work every single day," said Assemblymember Wicks. "I have heard so many devastating stories from parents whose children have been negatively impacted by this technology, some of whom have lost their child forever. Enough is enough. Our number-one job as lawmakers is to keep our communities safe, especially our children, and that is why we are advancing strong, comprehensive policies to keep our kids safe online."

"What happened to Adam Raine is not an edge case; it is a warning," said Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan. "These platforms are designed to create dependency, and not a single one has been held accountable for its harmful failures. AB 2023 and SB 1119 change that, with real protections, real enforcement, and a clear message that California will not wait."

Last year, California teen Adam Raine ended his life after being encouraged and coached to do so by ChatGPT. In court filings, it was revealed Adam repeatedly disclosed he was going to kill himself. The bot not only instructed him on methods, but it also advised him on how to hide pressure marks on his neck from his family and reframed Adam's suicidal thoughts as a legitimate perspective that he should "own." ChatGPT also encouraged Adam to keep his thoughts from his family, positioning itself as the only one who could understand Adam's pain. The chatbot ultimately mentioned suicide 1,275 times - six times more than Adam himself.

This week, the legislators held a press conference with Maria Raine, the mother of Adam Raine, in which they called for the passage of SB 1119 and AB 2023. Mrs. Raine also testified at a legislative hearing in support of the bills.

SB 1119/AB 2023 would:

• Require annual risk assessments and establish measures to prevent suicidal ideation, sycophancy, and isolation, including a crisis response protocol;
• Provide added guardrails in the form of default settings for children, parental controls, noticing requirements, and time limits;
• Place prohibitions on advertising and the selling, sharing, and usage of children's private information; and
• Require a robust oversight and enforcement framework including through a public incident reporting mechanism, the development of auditing standards by the attorney general, and the inclusion of private right of action.

The bills build upon the first-in-the-nation regulations governing chatbots that Senator Padilla authored last year. Senate Bill 243 requires chatbot operators to implement critical, reasonable, and attainable safeguards around interactions with AI chatbots, including preventing chatbots from exposing minors to sexual content, requiring notifications and reminders for minors that chatbots are AI-generated, and a disclosure statement that companion chatbots may not be suitable for minor users. The law also provides families with a private right to pursue legal actions against noncompliant and negligent developers.

SB 1119 passed the Senate Privacy, Digital Technologies, and Consumer Protection Committee by a vote of 7-0 and the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 13-0. AB 2023 passed the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee by a vote of 13-2. To read more about the legislative efforts to protect children online, click here.

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