California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of 13 bills on 10 September aimed at protecting young people online, including Assembly Bill 1709, which bars social media platforms from serving users under 16 features the law defines as “psychologically exploitative features intended to maximize engagement that foreseeably lead to compulsive use,” such as infinite scroll and autoplay. The package also included Senate Bill 1119, known as Adam’s Law, which requires independent child safety audits of AI chatbots, crisis protocols for suicidal ideation, and parental notification when a child disables safety settings.
Arriving alongside a landmark settlement
The signing came shortly after Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion in penalties as part of a settlement with 51 states and territories, following claims that the company knowingly designed Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to minors while misrepresenting the safety of its products. As part of that settlement, Meta committed to blocking teen accounts from posting or viewing content overnight by default, with parents able to disable the restriction. Newsom said the new laws reflect a principle that “innovation comes with responsibility and protecting our children comes first,” while First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom said safety “must not be an afterthought.”
A single state, a national test case
California’s laws apply only within the state, but the size of its market means platforms often redesign products nationally rather than build separate versions for one state, giving California’s rules outsized influence, a pattern seen previously with the state’s privacy and emissions laws. Technology companies and free-expression advocates have separately challenged related state social media laws in court, arguing design mandates can conflict with platforms’ own speech rights, a tension likely to shape how durable California’s new restrictions prove to be.
Why It Matters
The debate over addictive design features sits at the centre of growing evidence linking heavy social media use to anxiety, poor sleep and self-harm among adolescents. Whether California’s approach, regulating specific design features rather than access itself, becomes a national template or is narrowed by legal challenge will help determine how, and whether, the platforms shaping most teenagers’ daily lives are required to change.
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