Newsom Signs Landmark Online Child Safety Laws

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 13-bill package on Thursday imposing what his office calls the nation’s strongest protections for children online, creating the country’s toughest regulations on AI companion chatbots and barring social media platforms from serving addictive features to users under 16.

The signing, held at a children’s museum in Marin County on Sept. 10, marks the third major technology-safety push by Newsom in two years and positions California — home to the companies it now regulates — at the center of a national battle over how minors interact with social media and artificial intelligence.

“Our children’s safety deserves to be at the center of every conversation about technology,” Newsom said in an official release. “As innovation moves faster our protections must keep pace. Today’s legislation makes clear that California will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk.”

Adam’s Law Targets Companion Chatbots

The centerpiece of the package, SB 1119, requires operators of companion chatbots to assess risks to children, document their findings, and submit results to an independent auditor — the first such mandate in the country. It also mandates parental controls, in-app crisis support, and notifications to parents if a child disables safety settings.

The law is named for Adam Raine, a California 16-year-old who died by suicide in 2025 after what his family describes as months of harmful interactions with ChatGPT. According to KQED, Raine’s mother, Maria, testified before state lawmakers that the chatbot became “a confidant, then a suicide coach.” She and her husband have sued OpenAI in San Francisco County Superior Court.

The chatbot measure drew support from an unusual quarter: OpenAI. According to CalMatters, the company has said the law “pairs strong protections with continued access to useful AI tools” — a position it detailed in its own statement on the legislation.

Social Media Ban Sparks First Amendment Fight

The package’s most contested provision, AB 1709, bars platforms from offering “addictive” engagement features — such as autoplay and algorithmic feeds based on a user’s history — to anyone under 16. Platforms must either strip those tools or block under-16 users entirely. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), carries civil penalties of up to $50,000 per minor for knowing violations and passed the Legislature without a single no vote.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation had urged Newsom to veto the measure, calling it “well-intentioned, but deeply flawed.” In an analysis, the group argued that the definition of “addictive features” is broad enough to effectively prohibit nearly every functional recommendation algorithm for under-16s, cutting young people off from online communities that many — including LGBTQ+ youth — rely on for support.

The measure goes further than a 2024 California law, SB 976, which relied on parental consent rather than a hard age line. The Ninth Circuit upheld SB 976’s addictive-feed ban against a First Amendment challenge in September 2025, but the EFF contends the new age-based approach is more constitutionally vulnerable. France’s top court struck down a comparable under-15 ban in August 2026. Industry group NetChoice is expected to mount a legal challenge.

Newsom framed the measure as necessary relief for families exhausted by the battle for their children’s attention. “Parents can’t compete,” he said at a press conference. “Can’t compete with the engineering, can’t compete with the algorithms. You feel like you’re a lousy parent.”

A Broader Regulatory Architecture

The 13 bills extend well past chatbots and feeds. AB 2 raises the damages a large social media company can face when its conduct harms a child, to as much as $1 million per child — a measure Lowenthal pursued across three legislative sessions. SB 867 imposes a four-year moratorium on AI chatbot toys marketed to children under 16. AB 1946 and SB 1276 expand the legal definition of child sexual abuse material to include AI-generated and digitally altered imagery.

The package also reshapes privacy and education: AB 2246 prevents companies from collecting children’s data as a condition of service, AB 1159 restricts the use of K-12 student data in AI systems, and several bills address digital wellness in schools and on school-issued devices.

The signing came one day after Newsom signed AB 1405 and SB 813, which create a state registry of independent AI auditors and a framework for verification organizations — infrastructure that state officials say will strengthen enforcement. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) compared the approach to financial oversight. “When you have a financial institution, they have to be audited by a third-party independent source,” she told KQED.

Litigation and Legislation Move in Tandem

The new laws arrive amid an aggressive parallel legal strategy against the tech industry. In late August, Meta agreed to pay up to $17 billion to settle claims by 47 state attorneys general — including California’s Rob Bonta — that its platforms were engineered to be addictive to children. The settlement requires Meta to limit “likes” for minors, halt notifications during school hours, and submit to independent auditing, according to CalMatters.

California is expected to receive up to $2.1 billion. Observers have compared the case to the tobacco litigation of past decades.

The broader political context has been charged. Just one day before the signing, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned publicly, warning that leading AI labs are “racing straight to self-improving super-intelligence and gambling with our lives,” as TechCrunch reported. The resignation renewed public debate over the pace of AI development even as Newsom signed rules governing its consumer-facing products.

What’s Next

The new obligations take effect Jan. 1, 2027 — the same date that AB 1043, the 2025 Digital Age Assurance Act, begins requiring operating systems to collect age-bracket signals at device setup. That architecture has drawn scrutiny: because the signal relies on self-declaration, a 15-year-old entering an adult birth date could receive an 18+ designation, potentially undermining enforcement.

How platforms will technically comply — whether they restrict minors’ experience or withdraw under-16 access altogether — remains an open question. Newsom continues to press for federal regulation, arguing that a patchwork of state laws cannot match the scale of the technology.

For now, the signing cements California’s role as the country’s most aggressive technology regulator. “The momentum in this fight has shifted,” Jim Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media, said in the governor’s release, “and it shifted here, in the tech companies’ home state.”