The centerpiece of the package, Assembly Bill 1709, tells tech companies they have a choice when it comes to users under 16 — either strip out features designed to keep people scrolling, such as infinite feeds and autoplay video, or bar those younger users from the platform altogether.

Newsom framed the law as a direct challenge to the engineering behind social media addiction rather than simply another content restriction.

“This is about the features themselves — the scrolling, the algorithms,” Newsom said. “This is about addressing the substantive issue around the engineering.”

Not everyone welcomed the move. Digital rights groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, had lobbied Newsom to veto the bill. While acknowledging the good intentions behind it, the organization warned that cutting off younger users from certain platform features could also cut them off from valuable information and online experiences.

Alongside AB 1709, Newsom signed what’s known as Adam’s Law, a measure regulating how artificial intelligence chatbots interact with minors. The law sets time limits on how long kids can engage with AI chatbots and requires companies to build in mental health resources within those tools. It also mandates that chatbot operators develop safety protocols — so that if a bot detects warning signs of self-harm, parents must be notified.

The law is named for Adam Raine, a California teenager who died by suicide in 2025 after what his family said was a troubling series of exchanges with the popular chatbot ChatGPT, which they say offered him guidance related to his death.

Newsom’s broader child-safety package also included legislation making social media companies legally liable for harm inflicted on children through their platforms, an overhaul of age-verification requirements for apps, and a four-year moratorium on AI-equipped chatbot toys marketed to kids.

Whether the new laws will translate into real protection for children remains an open question. Experts note that preventing tragedies like Raine’s death will hinge largely on how aggressively regulators and attorneys pursue enforcement once the laws take effect.

MATH SCREENING BILL AWAITS NEWSOM’S SIGNATURE

Still sitting on the governor’s desk is a separate measure that would require California’s youngest students to be screened for basic math skills, part of a broader push to address stagnant math performance across the state.

California’s math scores have struggled since the pandemic and now trail the national average by a wide margin. Only 37% of the state’s students met grade-level math standards last year, according to recent test results.

The proposed screening would apply to kindergartners along with first- and second-graders, testing straightforward skills such as number ordering and basic comparisons. Students found to be behind would be connected with additional tutoring support.

The California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union, has come out against the bill, arguing it would add unnecessary stress for young children without meaningfully improving outcomes. The union instead wants the state to invest more heavily in training teachers to strengthen math instruction in the classroom.

GENDER GAP EMERGES AMONG LATINO VOTERS ON IMMIGRATION

A new study from the UCLA Latino Politics and Policy Center and the UC Berkeley Institute for Governmental Studies has found a notable gender divide among Latino voters when it comes to immigration enforcement, opposition to the Trump administration, and the importance placed on defending democratic institutions.

Researchers surveyed roughly 1,900 registered Latino voters about how important those three issues were to their choice in the race for California governor. Across every measure, Latinas were consistently more likely than Latino men to call the issues “very important.”

The divide was most pronounced among younger, non-college-educated and predominantly English-speaking voters. On the question of protecting immigrant communities, 17% more Latinas than Latinos rated the issue as very important. That gap widened to 22% among working-class voters and to 28% among those under 30.

Cristina Mora, co-director of the Berkeley IGS and one of the study’s authors, said the findings reflect a generation grappling with identity and connection to the immigrant experience.

“They’re thoroughly American, and they are trying to understand immigration and the question of whether (they) should have this link or commonality and natural empathy for the immigrant,” Mora said.

PAROLE BOARD SHAKEUP FOLLOWS PUBLIC BACKLASH

State Senate leader Monique Limón effectively pushed out two members of California’s Board of Parole Hearings in June after their votes in two Sacramento-area cases sparked public outrage. Both commissioners had years of experience on the board when they separately voted to release two men serving life sentences for sexual crimes against children committed in the 1990s. The removals highlight the political pressure surrounding parole decisions involving high-profile or emotionally charged cases.

Original source: CalMatters

The post Newsom Pushes New Limits on Kids’ Social Media Use appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The findings come from a report by San Francisco-based nonprofit Hopelab, produced in partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Researchers interviewed 30 young people ages 14 to 22 about how and why they use AI chatbots, uncovering patterns that could shape how California lawmakers approach regulation of the technology going forward.

According to the report, many young people said they turned to chatbots specifically because they didn’t want to burden friends or family with their problems. Others pointed to the round-the-clock availability of AI companions, along with a sense that the responses felt more practical and less judgmental than advice from people in their lives.

Emma Bruehlman-Senecal, Hopelab’s principal researcher, shared one example from the study: a teenage boy anxious before a soccer match asked his father for advice and was told simply to “focus on the game.” When he posed the same question to an AI chatbot, he received specific breathing exercises and tips for staying present in the moment — guidance he found more useful.

Even so, the young people surveyed weren’t naive about AI’s limitations. Many acknowledged that chatbots can be overly flattering or agreeable, a tendency researchers elsewhere have also documented. Still, some participants said they viewed AI feedback as more neutral than advice from friends, who might bring their own biases or personal history into the conversation.

The report lands at a pivotal moment for AI regulation in California. Last year, state lawmakers passed legislation — backed by the tech industry — requiring AI developers to build in certain safeguards, including monitoring conversations for warning signs of suicidal ideation. Around the same time, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a tougher bill that would have restricted minors’ access to chatbots altogether.

Bruehlman-Senecal argues that any future policymaking should involve the young people who actually use these tools daily. She said lawmakers should aim to preserve what teens find genuinely helpful about chatbots — such as immediate, actionable advice — while working to reduce potential harms.

Asked how she, as a parent of a young child, would feel about her own daughter someday turning to an AI chatbot, Bruehlman-Senecal said she’d want to keep the conversation open: framing chatbots as a tool to supplement, not replace, real emotional and mental health support.

KAISER UNION FILES AI COMPLAINT

A health care workers’ union has accused Kaiser Permanente of violating California law by allegedly relying on algorithms and AI systems to generate mental health care recommendations without adequate oversight from licensed clinicians.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers filed a formal complaint alleging that Kaiser uses a digital screening tool for patients who believe they may be experiencing anxiety or depression. Patients fill out a questionnaire, and the tool then “automatically and instantaneously generates care recommendations” based on their answers, according to the complaint.

The union contends this violates state law, which requires that medical decisions be made by licensed health care professionals and prohibits AI or algorithms from overriding that clinical judgment.

A Kaiser spokesperson pushed back, stating the company does not use AI to diagnose patients, make clinical decisions, or determine medical necessity. The state Department of Managed Health Care, which regulates health plans, confirmed it is now investigating the union’s complaint.

CALIFORNIA’S PRIVATIZED PUBLIC DEFENSE SYSTEM UNDER SCRUTINY

A newly released report is drawing attention to the staggering caseloads carried by some of California’s public defenders, particularly in counties that rely on privatized, flat-fee contract systems.

In Kings County, for example, one attorney handled nearly 600 indigent criminal defense cases in 2025 alone — a number that rivals the worst public defense caseloads recorded anywhere in the country. That total doesn’t even include the same attorney’s separate personal injury caseload.

The report, produced by the nonprofit Wren Collective, links these overwhelming workloads to the flat-fee contracts many counties use to pay public defenders. Josh Schwartz of the organization explained that this payment structure creates a built-in conflict of interest: the more time an attorney spends on a single case, the less profitable that case becomes under a flat fee.

The findings build on an earlier CalMatters investigation that examined one law firm that has earned a reputation as something of a mass-production operation for public defense work.

ICE DETENTION FACILITY HEALTH CARE UNDER REVIEW

A court-appointed monitor has completed an evaluation of the newly opened immigration detention facility in California City, concluding that it “lacks a reliable system to consistently provide adequate health care.” The assessment is tied to an ongoing lawsuit brought by detainees challenging conditions at the facility.

CALIFORNIA VOICES

Two perspectives on Proposition 40, the November ballot measure that would tax California billionaires:

Supporters argue the measure would ensure billionaires pay their fair share, helping keep hospitals open and fund medical care for seniors, veterans and working families, according to Erica Olivo Reynoso, a licensed vocational nurse at Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center.

Critics counter that Prop. 40 trades dependable, ongoing revenue for a short-term cash infusion, warning that once the money is spent, California could be stuck with a shrunken tax base — an argument raised by Ahmad Thomas, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Original source: CalMatters

The post Teens Turn to AI Chatbots for Advice They Won’t Ask Adults appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.