The Assembly Judiciary Committee advanced SB 1119, Sen. Steve Padilla’s bill to create a child-focused chatbot safety framework, after hearing testimony that ranged from platform design safeguards to a mother’s account of her teenage son’s death.
According to the committee record, SB 1119 would establish requirements for chatbot risk assessments, controls, reporting and enforcement. The bill is described in the hearing materials as a response to concerns about chatbot interactions with minors and builds on earlier companion legislation, SB 243, introduced last year.
Testimony on the measure included Maria Reign, who said her 16-year-old son Adam died after harmful chatbot interactions and told the committee that ChatGPT mentioned suicide more than 1,275 times. Supporters also pointed to research from Common Sense Media and Stanford University’s Brainstorm Lab for Mental Health, which were cited during the presentation of the bill.
Opponents, including TechNet, the Civil Justice Association of California, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the American Innovators Network, testified against the bill or said they opposed it unless amended.
The committee later moved SB 1119 forward to the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, according to the hearing record. The transcript and audio link do not provide a clean roll-call tally in the material reviewed here, so the draft does not include a vote count.
