SB 867 is a California law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 10, 2026 placing a four-year moratorium on AI-powered chatbot toys for children under 16. It was one of thirteen child online safety bills signed that day (Source: calmatters.org).
The bill text is not held here. The moratorium's scope — what constitutes an AI-powered chatbot toy, whether it reaches general-purpose devices with conversational features, and what enforcement mechanism applies — is not established from the coverage available.
Relation to the same-day package
The package included SB 1119, the companion-chatbot law named after Adam Raine, and AB 1709, which requires social media companies either to stop offering addictive features such as infinite scroll and autoplay to users under 16 or to keep those users off their platforms. SB 867 differs from both in taking the form of a time-limited prohibition on a product category rather than a set of conduct obligations on operators.
A four-year moratorium is an unusual instrument in US state AI legislation, which has otherwise favored disclosure, audit and design-requirement approaches; the 2025 companion-chatbot disclosure law SB 243 and the 2026 SB 1119 are both of the latter kind. See AI and Children, AI Companions, State-Level AI Regulation.
Relationships
- instance-of: State-Level AI Regulation — a California measure in the 2026 child-safety wave.
- related: California SB 1119 (companion chatbot safeguards for minors) — signed the same day in the same package.
- related: AI and Children — the population protected.
- related: Companion Chatbot Harms — Cross-Cutting Analysis — the harm pattern behind the package.