California Becomes First State to Ban Addictive Social Media Feeds for Minors

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of child online-safety legislation Thursday, enacting what his office called the strongest child-safety chatbot and social media laws in the nation. The centerpiece measure, Assembly Bill 1709, prohibits social media platforms from offering "addictive features" — including infinite scroll, autoplay video and algorithmic feeds built from a user's history — to anyone under 16, a first for any US state.

The bill, authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal of Long Beach, defines addictive features as design elements "intended to maximize engagement and encourage compulsive use," and passed both chambers of the Legislature without a single dissenting vote, according to the bill's legislative record. Platforms that continue offering those features to underage users without parental consent face civil penalties of up to $50,000 per affected minor, and the law creates a new state e-Safety Advisory Commission to guide enforcement and monitor emerging online risks to children.

Newsom signed 13 bills in total as part of the package. A companion measure, Senate Bill 1119 — nicknamed "Adam's Law" — targets AI companion chatbots, requiring crisis-response protocols for conversations involving suicidal ideation, parental notification when a child disables safety settings, and independent audits of chatbot safety systems. Other bills in the package, detailed in a summary from the California Attorney General's office, expand child sexual-exploitation statutes to cover AI-generated and AI-altered imagery, restrict targeted advertising to minors, and require age-verification signals from platforms.

"Innovation comes with responsibility, and protecting our children comes first," Newsom said in his office's announcement. First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who has championed several of the measures, said safety "must not be an afterthought — but baked into design."

The law drew swift pushback from digital-rights advocates. The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed AB 1709, arguing the measure could restrict young people's access to legitimate online communities and push platforms toward invasive age-verification systems involving government identification or biometric scans — concerns the group has raised repeatedly as states experiment with youth social-media restrictions, per coverage from the Washington Post.

The legislation lands amid a broader national reckoning over youth mental health and social media, an issue that has drawn bipartisan attention in state legislatures and Congress alike, though federal efforts to regulate platform design for minors have stalled repeatedly. With Thursday's signing, California — home to most of the country's largest social media and AI companies — becomes the most significant state so far to convert that debate into binding platform-design rules, a move other states are likely to watch closely as they consider similar bills, according to NBC News.