California Enacts Laws Restricting Chatbots and Banning Teens From 'Addictive' Social Media
The package also adds parental controls, chatbot safety rules and criminal penalties for AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
- On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed "Adam's Law," a package of 13 bills barring children under 16 from addictive social media features and banning toys containing AI companion chatbots.
- The legislation honors Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who died by suicide in 2025 after his parents said he acted on suicidal thoughts validated during months of discussion with OpenAI's ChatGPT.
- New regulations require companies to remove "addictive" tools like infinite scroll for users under 16, complementing a recent $18 billion settlement where Meta agreed to limit features harming teens' mental health.
- While gaining bipartisan support, the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the bill as "well-intentioned, but deeply flawed," arguing it threatens privacy and free speech rights.
- California joins states like Utah and Arkansas in regulating youth tech access, with Newsom touting the measures as the most far-reaching of their kind to protect minors.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Gavin Newsom signed a law that bans addictive social media functions for children under 16 years of age in California; he knows the details of the rule.
[Yomiuri Shimbun] [Los Angeles - Tomoki Masuda] On the 10th, California passed a state law prohibiting social networking service providers from offering features considered highly addictive to minors under the age of 16. Amid a wave of lawsuits across the United States against IT companies over social networking addiction, this law addresses the issue of minors
California has just become the state with the most demanding online child safety regulation in the U.S. Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of 12 laws on September 10 that penalizes up to $1 million per child affected by social platforms that are negligent in child protection,... Continue reading »The Newsom News signs the toughest child safety law package in the U.S., but vetoes the general ban on chatbots for children under 18 was originall…
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