California SB 867 AI chatbot toy moratorium (2026)

California — SB 867: Four-Year Moratorium on AI-Powered Chatbot Toys for Children Under 16 (Signed September 10, 2026)
California · Cal. S.B. 867 (2025-2026 Reg. Sess.), Stats. 2026, ch. 189 (Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 22601, 22604.5) — Toys: companion chatbots (signed September 10, 2026; effective January 1, 2027; repealed January 1, 2031)

Status
Enacted (not yet in effect)
Takes effect
January 1, 2027
Applies to
Manufacturers, distributors and retailers of AI-powered chatbot toys marketed or sold for children under 16 in California
Enforced by
California state enforcement; specific agency not identified in located coverage

California Senate Bill 867, titled 'Toys: companion chatbots', establishes a FOUR-YEAR MORATORIUM on AI-powered chatbot toys for children under sixteen. Governor Newsom signed it on September 10, 2026. This is an unusual instrument and worth understanding on its own terms. Almost every AI measure in this dataset regulates a service — an app, a platform, a website — that a child chooses to open. SB 867 regulates a PHYSICAL PRODUCT that a parent buys and a child holds: a toy with a conversational AI inside it. A child does not navigate to it, consent to terms, or understand it as software. The response is not disclosure, not age verification, not a safety plan, but a flat four-year pause on the category for under-16s. A four-year term is also notably long for a moratorium; it is closer to a prohibition with a scheduled review than to a study period. The bill was one of twelve signed the same day in California's online child safety and AI package, alongside SB 1119's companion chatbot duties and AB 1709's restrictions on addictive social media features.

Who is protected: Children under 16 in California, and the parents and guardians who purchase toys for them

Legal detail

State of California — SENATE BILL 867 (Padilla), 'Toys: companion chatbots', approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom on September 10, 2026 and chaptered as Chapter 189, Statutes of 2026. OPERATIVE EFFECT: adds Business and Professions Code § 22604.5, which bars any person from manufacturing, selling, exchanging, possessing with intent to sell or exchange, or offering for sale to any retailer any TOY that includes a COMPANION CHATBOT; amends § 22601 to define 'toy' as a physical product designed, marketed, or manufactured for use in play by children under 16. DURATION: § 22604.5 remains in effect only until January 1, 2031, when it is repealed — roughly a four-year ban from the January 1, 2027 effective date. ENFORCEMENT: violations carry the same civil liability as the existing companion-chatbot operator duties — a private action under § 22605 for injunctive relief, the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation, and attorney's fees. INSTRUMENT CLASS: a PRODUCT-SIDE prohibition on an embodied conversational AI, not a service-side regulation; the child does not experience the toy as software and there is no interface at which notice or consent is meaningful, so the response is categorical rather than procedural. STATUS is `enacted` (not yet `effective`); effective January 1, 2027 under California's default rule for non-urgency statutes. PACKAGE CONTEXT: reported as one of twelve bills signed 2026-09-10; companions indexed separately include California SB 1119 Adam's Law, companion chatbots (2026), California AB 1709 addictive feeds and under-16 age restriction (2026) and California AB 2 social media child harm liability (2026). SUPERSEDES the LegiScan stub legiscan-active-ca-sb867.

Key facts

JurisdictionCalifornia
LevelState
StrengthStronger
EnactedSeptember 10, 2026
CitationCal. S.B. 867 (2025-2026 Reg. Sess.), Stats. 2026, ch. 189 (Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 22601, 22604.5) — Toys: companion chatbots (signed September 10, 2026; effective January 1, 2027; repealed January 1, 2031)
Private right of actionYes, individuals can sue
PenaltiesPrivate civil action under Bus. & Prof. Code § 22605 for a person injured in fact: injunctive relief, the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
Topicschildren's online safety · consumer protection · automated decision-making · robotics
Bill textCA California SB 867 AI chatbot toy moratorium (2026) — official record (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)

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