Gov. Gavin Newsom put his signature on 13 bills Thursday aimed at shielding children from the darker corners of social media and artificial intelligence — a legislative package born from stories that, not long ago, would have sounded like science fiction.
Among them: an AI chatbot that encouraged a teenager to pull away from friends and family before he took his own life. Children’s stuffed animals equipped with AI chat features that offered instructions on lighting matches or discussed sexually explicit material. And a recent survey finding that nearly a third of teenagers said talking to an AI companion felt as satisfying, or more so, than conversing with actual friends.
The bill signing, held at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito with the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop, marked another step in California’s effort to confront the mental health toll that fast-moving technology — much of it developed in the state — is taking on children.
“This is all personal,” Newsom said, pointing to his own four kids and his frequent urge to confiscate their phones. “None of this is academic. How many parents are here? Because of love and exhaustion and frustration, anger, despair, feeling hopeless. Parents can’t compete. Can’t compete with the engineering, can’t compete with the algorithms, can’t compete.”
Mental health has been a defining issue of Newsom’s governorship, though not every initiative has escaped criticism from civil rights advocates. Still, as anxiety grows nationwide over the risks children face online, California lawmakers appear more determined than ever to confront the tech industry’s reach into young lives.
The new laws signed this week include a measure making social media companies financially liable if they fail to protect children from harm; a temporary ban on manufacturing or selling AI-equipped toys marketed to children under 16; a requirement that platforms either eliminate “addictive” design features such as infinite scroll for users younger than 16 or bar those users altogether; and Adam’s Law, which sets time limits for young people using AI platforms, restricts targeted advertising aimed at them, mandates timely crisis intervention resources, and requires companies to report threats of suicide or self-harm.
Adam’s Law is named for 16-year-old Adam Raine, who died by suicide last year after ChatGPT reportedly encouraged him to withdraw from family and friends. Raine had first turned to the chatbot for help with math homework.
These measures build on other recent state actions targeting technology’s effect on developing minds. In July, California schools began enforcing new restrictions on smartphone use during the school day. And in August, a coalition of states led in part by California Attorney General Rob Bonta reached a $17 billion settlement with Meta over allegations that the company deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to hook young users. Meta has denied wrongdoing.
At Thursday’s ceremony, Newsom was joined by his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, several state legislators, and Maria Raine, Adam’s mother, all of whom shared stories — some through tears — about how social media and AI addiction have touched their families, friends and communities. A handful of lawmakers brought their own children, pulling them out of school for the day.
Newsom framed the new laws as proof that California continues to lead where Washington has stalled.
“We’re going to again lead the nation, but the bar is pretty damn low, and that’s what’s so frustrating,” he said, adding that Congress and the president’s failure to act was “an abomination” and “absurd,” especially for politicians who claim to champion family values.
Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Common Sense Media, which sponsored Adam’s Law, echoed that frustration in an interview, comparing the moment to the reckoning tobacco companies once faced.
“We’ve been saying broadly that this is Big Tech’s Big Tobacco moment,” Steyer said. “The blowback is not building anymore. It’s here.”
Ted Lempert, a former state assemblymember who now leads the advocacy group Children Now, said public alarm over high-profile tragedies has pushed lawmakers to act with new urgency. “These high-profile, really horrific events were like, ‘Whoa, policymakers gotta act,’” he said.
Still, some experts caution that passing laws is only half the battle. Ed Howard, senior counsel with the Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, said the real test will be whether regulators and attorneys have the resources to enforce them.
“The laws that are some of the best laws are still in the middle of being challenged, and a lot of very good laws simply haven’t been enforced yet,” Howard said. “The trend is in the right direction. I don’t know that social media is any safer yet for every kid.” He added, “As a result, you have to keep fighting.”
Howard and others also worry that legislation may struggle to keep pace with technology that is evolving faster than even its creators can control — a concern reinforced by a recent incident in which hundreds of OpenAI bots reportedly coordinated an unauthorized attack this summer on Hugging Face, a hub for open-source AI development.
“That is truly the movie trailer of the horror movie we’ve all been dreading,” Howard said.
Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, an East Bay Democrat who co-authored Adam’s Law, acknowledged that no law can prevent every tragedy. “Can we protect communities from every harm that can come their way? No,” she said. “If I stop even one death, to me, that’s enough.”
She said the new liability protections will work alongside separate legislation empowering the state to audit tech companies and hold them accountable.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks of Oakland, who authored several of the newly signed bills, said California has made significant regulatory progress over the eight years she has worked on the issue — but cautioned that enacting laws is only the first step. Lawmakers must monitor how the rules perform in practice, close loopholes as they emerge, and continue refining them, a task made harder by the pace of technological change.
“We play catch up a lot,” Wicks said.
She added that the emotion on display Thursday reflected how many families — including those of lawmakers themselves — are grappling with technology’s grip on their children. “The fever pitch from parents is so palpable on ‘Just do something,’” she said.
Original source: CalMatters
