California Governor Gavin Newsom signs bills restricting “addictive features” on social media for under-16s and limiting minors' interactions with chatbots
IN SUMMARY Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a set of bills intended to protect children online. Keeping up with your California representatives felt impossible before.
The new measures extend that arc from social-media design to minors’ chatbot interactions. The story also travelled across general-interest, technology and financial outlets, underscoring that California’s rules are being treated as a consequential policy benchmark rather than a narrow statehouse action.
First-order effects
California social-media services must restrict addictive design features for users under 16, while chatbot providers face limits on how minors may interact with their products.
The measures layer new youth protections onto California’s earlier feed, notification, data-collection and warning-label rules, increasing the number of product rules providers must apply to young users.
Second-order effects
Platforms and chatbot providers serving California minors gain a stronger incentive to distinguish under-16 accounts from other users, because the applicable design and interaction rules now differ by age.
Companies that operate both social and conversational AI products must align youth-safety policies across interfaces rather than treating chatbots as outside the established social-platform rulebook.
Third-order effects
If California continues extending youth protections from data practices and feeds to conversational AI, online-child-safety regulation will increasingly govern product mechanics—not only illegal content or disclosures.
The pattern favors a more interface-neutral approach to youth governance, in which the same policy concern follows minors across social feeds, notifications and AI companions.
The trend: California is broadening youth online-safety policy from platform data and feed design toward age-specific governance of AI-mediated interactions.
Thanks @GavinNewsom for signing a number of new child protections into law, including AB2, which meaningfully increases the costs to companies when they are found liable in court for harming kids. Thanks to @JoshLowenthal for sponsoring it as well as your continued leadership on…
Today, Governor @GavinNewsom signed Bill 1709 into law in California, requiring social media platforms to disable addictive design features by default for young users. This law builds on the momentum from Meta's landmark settlement last month, making clear that design-based prot…
So pleased to see how much @GavinNewsom gets this issue. On AB 1709, a restriction on addictive social media features and feeds for under-16-year-olds, he says: “This is different than what Australia did. It's better than what they did...this is about the features themselves.”
I just signed legislation banning addictive social media features like infinite scroll for users under 16 and regulating chatbot companion usage by minors. California will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk.
Adam Raine should be here. Nothing we do in Sacramento can change that. But because his family turned unimaginable loss into action, Adam's story will protect other kids. Today, @CAgovernor signed Adam's Law — putting critical guardrails in place to make AI safer for our kids.
Lehane at OpenAI (@chrislehane) is out with a post that builds on the themes we scooped the company urged on Congress today. Calls for a “mandatory, capability-based national regulation” focused on leading labs, not startups. Will continue state push https://openai.com/...
BREAKING: I just signed the strongest kid safety laws for AI chatbots and social media in America. California is banning addictive social media features for kids, cracking down on dangerous AI chatbots, and strengthening privacy protections for ALL kids. PROTECT OUR KIDS!
We're grateful for @CAgovernor's leadership in signing nation-leading design feature legislation. AB 1709 restricts addictive features and feeds for under-16-year-olds while still preserving access. Our statement on today's bill signing.
I'm a proud joint author of AB2 and AB1709. While I wasn't invited to the press conference, I'm thankful @CAgovernor @GavinNewsom signed these bills. Also thanks to @JenSiebelNewsom for her leadership on this issue. AB2, which I authored along with @AsmLowenthal , is really wh…
I'm proud. @CAGovernor just signed the strongest child safety tech laws in the nation, banning addictive social media features for kids under 16 and strengthening safeguards around AI companion chatbots. California is setting the standard for the nation that tech innovation must …
Today, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that prohibits social media platforms from providing addictive features to users under 16, the first law of its kind in the nation. …