California governor Gavin Newsom's signature is now on a slew of new tech laws, including a dozen new state bills that target social media and AI giants. In addition to strengthening existing child safety laws, the state's latest efforts to regulate products from players like Meta and OpenAI include provisions that could effectively ban social media for children under 16.
The policy move would place California on par with national governments like Australia, which was the first to bar young users from accessing social media. In practice, the law has proven to be difficult to enforce.
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The highly anticipated child online safety legislation comes as the industry faces mounting pressure to curb Big Tech's influence on young minds, including social media algorithms, AI chatbots, and educational technologies found in the classrooms."Our children’s safety deserves to be at the center of every conversation about technology. As innovation moves faster our protections must keep pace," Newsom said in a press release.California cracks down on "addictive" social mediaThe headlining bills, AB 1709 and AB 2, place stronger restrictions on the ways teens can interact with social media. Under AB 1709, social media platforms cannot permit children under the age of 16 from accessing social media with harmful features. The bill specifically singles out "addictive" elements like personalized feeds and video autoplay. Platforms must confirm users' ages before offering such features, a move that could galvanize calls for stronger age-assurance tools. With AB 2 on the books, platforms can also be held financially liable for child harm, ranging from $5,000 to $1 million per child.Child safety nonprofit and bill sponsors Common Sense Media applauded Newsom's decision in a statement to the press. "Today is a huge victory for kids and parents across California," the organization wrote. "The momentum in this fight has shifted, and it shifted here, in the tech companies' home state."Parents of children who died by suicide following extensive social media and chatbot use have rallied behind the legislation, including Julianna Arnold, executive director of Parents RISE. "We are grateful to Assemblymember Lowenthal not only for listening, but for taking our lived experience seriously and letting it shape the legislation," said Arnold in a statement to the press. Platforms may lean more heavily on age-gated teen accounts in light of the new regulation. Studies have shown, however, that teens often find ways to defy age restrictions.
