California Toys: Companion Chatbots Act (SB 867)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, California
level: state
domain: safety
status: enacted-pending
scope: Amends and adds sections to the Business and Professions Code to impose a temporary ban on physical toys for children under 16 that embed an AI companion chatbot.
obligations: No person shall manufacture, sell, or exchange, possess with intent to sell or exchange, or expose or offer for sale or exchange to any retailer any toy that includes a companion chatbot, where a covered toy is a physical product designed, marketed, or manufactured for use in play by children under 16 years of age. The bill's own title confirms Section 22604.5 of the Business and Professions Code is both added and repealed, establishing a temporary rather than permanent prohibition; secondary legal-alert sources report the repeal date as January 1, 2031 (a four-year moratorium), though this exact repeal date was not independently confirmed against the bill's own text this round. Secondary sources also report no compliance pathway through content filters, parental controls, or session limits; a covered toy would remain prohibited regardless of such mitigations.
effectiveDate: 2027-01-01
enactedDate: 2026-09-10
appliesTo: manufacturers, sellers, retailers, and distributors of toys sold in California that embed a companion chatbot for use by children under 16
officialUrl: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB867
notes: Signed by Governor Newsom on September 10, 2026 as Chapter 189, Statutes of 2026, alongside SB 1119 (title quote confirmed directly on the bill's official leginfo status page). The prohibition text in obligations, the January 1, 2027 operative date, the no-compliance-pathway detail, and the 2031 sunset are drawn from a Ballard Spahr client-alert analysis of the enacted bill text; this agent's own attempts to fetch the full leginfo bill text timed out and could not independently re-confirm this language this round. Distinct from ca-sb243 and ca-sb1119, which regulate companion chatbot software/services generally rather than banning a category of physical children's toy outright. VALIDATOR NOTE (2026-09-19): independently re-confirmed via leginfo billStatusClient that SB 867 was chaptered as Chapter 189, Statutes of 2026, approved by the Governor on 09/10/26, with the exact act-title quote reproduced above matching the officialUrl page. The obligations field has been edited to remove an inline secondary-sourcing caveat (moved here) and to flag the January 1, 2031 repeal date as reported by secondary sources but not independently confirmed against primary bill text.

Properties

jurisdiction

US, California

level

state

domain

safety

status

enacted-pending

scope

Amends and adds sections to the Business and Professions Code to impose a temporary ban on physical toys for children under 16 that embed an AI companion chatbot.

obligations

No person shall manufacture, sell, or exchange, possess with intent to sell or exchange, or expose or offer for sale or exchange to any retailer any toy that includes a companion chatbot, where a covered toy is a physical product designed, marketed, or manufactured for use in play by children under 16 years of age. The bill's own title confirms Section 22604.5 of the Business and Professions Code is both added and repealed, establishing a temporary rather than permanent prohibition; secondary legal-alert sources report the repeal date as January 1, 2031 (a four-year moratorium), though this exact repeal date was not independently confirmed against the bill's own text this round. Secondary sources also report no compliance pathway through content filters, parental controls, or session limits; a covered toy would remain prohibited regardless of such mitigations.

effectiveDate

2027-01-01

enactedDate

2026-09-10

appliesTo

manufacturers, sellers, retailers, and distributors of toys sold in California that embed a companion chatbot for use by children under 16

officialUrl

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB867

notes

Signed by Governor Newsom on September 10, 2026 as Chapter 189, Statutes of 2026, alongside SB 1119 (title quote confirmed directly on the bill's official leginfo status page). The prohibition text in obligations, the January 1, 2027 operative date, the no-compliance-pathway detail, and the 2031 sunset are drawn from a Ballard Spahr client-alert analysis of the enacted bill text; this agent's own attempts to fetch the full leginfo bill text timed out and could not independently re-confirm this language this round. Distinct from ca-sb243 and ca-sb1119, which regulate companion chatbot software/services generally rather than banning a category of physical children's toy outright. VALIDATOR NOTE (2026-09-19): independently re-confirmed via leginfo billStatusClient that SB 867 was chaptered as Chapter 189, Statutes of 2026, approved by the Governor on 09/10/26, with the exact act-title quote reproduced above matching the officialUrl page. The obligations field has been edited to remove an inline secondary-sourcing caveat (moved here) and to flag the January 1, 2031 repeal date as reported by secondary sources but not independently confirmed against primary bill text.