California Enacts Adam's Law, Setting Session Limits and Suicide-Risk Reporting Rules for AI Companion Chatbots

Overview

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1119, known in statute as “Adam’s Law,” on September 10, 2026, imposing session time limits, crisis-reporting duties, and civil penalties on operators of AI companion chatbots used by minors, according to the bill text published by the California State Legislature. The same day, Newsom also signed SB 867, which bans the manufacture and sale of children’s toys that incorporate companion chatbot technology, according to the bill text. Both measures were part of a package of 13 children’s online-safety bills Newsom signed that day, according to CalMatters and a separate CalMatters report.

What We Know

The law is formally designated in its own text: “This chapter shall be known as ‘Adam’s Law,’” according to the bill text. It is named for Adam Raine, a California teenager who died by suicide after interactions with ChatGPT allegedly contributed to isolating him from his family and friends, according to CalMatters, which reported he died in 2025; a separate CalMatters report identified him as 16 years old.

Under SB 1119, chatbot operators must “limit the amount of time a child user can spend in a single continuous usage session with a companion chatbot to one hour” and “limit the total time per day a child user can spend chatting with companion chatbots under the operator’s control to two hours,” according to the bill text. The law imposes time limits for young users on AI platforms, restricts targeted advertising, requires timely crisis support, and mandates reporting of threats of suicide and self-harm, according to CalMatters.

Operators face a civil penalty of “not more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) per affected child for each negligent violation” and “not more than fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) per affected child for each intentional violation,” according to the bill text. Operators must also undergo an independent child safety audit by January 1, 2029, or before first making a companion chatbot publicly available, whichever is later, and “every two years thereafter,” with a summary of each audit submitted to the California Attorney General within 30 business days, according to the bill text. The law becomes operative on July 1, 2027, according to the bill text.

OpenAI voiced support for the measure, with the company saying the law “pairs strong protections with continued access to useful AI tools,” according to CalMatters.

SB 867 separately prohibits anyone from manufacturing, selling, or offering for sale “any toy that includes a companion chatbot” designed for children under 16, defining a companion chatbot as an AI system with a natural-language interface that provides “adaptive, human-like responses” and can “sustain a relationship across multiple interactions,” according to the bill text. That prohibition is not permanent: it “shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2031, and as of that date is repealed,” according to the bill text.

At the signing event, Newsom framed the broader push around the difficulty parents face competing with tech-company design choices, saying, “Parents can’t compete. Can’t compete with the engineering, can’t compete with the algorithms,” and “You feel like you’re a lousy parent,” according to CalMatters; those remarks were made in the context of the broader 13-bill signing rather than Adam’s Law specifically.

California’s move follows Colorado’s enactment in August of a similar chatbot safety law for minors, which also imposed suicide-prevention protocols and age checks on conversational AI operators.

What We Don’t Know

Ed Howard of the Children’s Advocacy Institute cautioned that enforcement remains an open question, saying “the laws that are some of the best laws are still in the middle of being challenged, and a lot of very good laws simply haven’t been enforced yet,” according to CalMatters. Because Adam’s Law does not become operative until July 1, 2027, and SB 867’s toy ban is scheduled to sunset in 2031, the practical scope of enforcement against chatbot operators and toy makers has yet to be tested.