California bans addictive social media feeds and AI companion chatbots for under-16s
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of 13 bills on September 10 restricting how technology companies can design social media platforms and AI chatbots for users under 16 — a set of laws state officials are calling the strongest child safety protections of their kind in the country.
The package targets two distinct product categories that have drawn growing scrutiny over the past year: social media features engineered to maximize engagement, and AI companion chatbots marketed to or used by minors. Both are treated as design problems in the new laws, not just content-moderation problems — the restrictions target the mechanics of the products themselves.
What the social media rules require
Social media companies are now barred from giving users under 16 access to features the law defines as "addictive" — a definition that explicitly includes autoplaying videos, push notifications, and personalized algorithm-driven content feeds. That's a notably broad definition: it covers the core recommendation-engine mechanics that most major platforms rely on to drive engagement, not just narrow features like infinite scroll. Companies found negligent in causing harm to a child through these mechanisms face penalties of up to $1 million per child.
What the chatbot rules require
For AI companion chatbots, the new laws impose time limits on how teens can interact with them and require chatbot makers to build in mental health resources and safety protocols that trigger if a minor's conversation touches on self-harm. Operators must also notify parents if a child disables safety settings, and must perform a risk assessment before rolling out a chatbot product to minors at all. Separately, the package bans toys that contain AI companion chatbots outright.
Additional provisions
The 13-bill package also expands online privacy protections for minors more broadly and allows families to opt their children out of receiving school-issued laptops — a provision that reflects growing parental concern about the amount of screen time built into standard school technology deployments, separate from social media or chatbot use specifically.
Why this matters beyond California
California's tech regulations have historically set a de facto national floor, since most major platforms build to the strictest state requirement rather than maintaining separate product versions per state — the same dynamic that made the CCPA a national privacy reference point well before other states passed their own laws. The chatbot-specific provisions are particularly notable because, unlike social media regulation, there's little existing legal framework in the US specifically governing AI companion products aimed at or accessible to minors. Companies building consumer AI chatbots with any meaningful teen user base will likely need to build these safeguards into their national product regardless of where a given user is located, simply because segmenting product behavior by state is operationally harder than building to the strictest common standard.
Originally reported by Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. Read the original article for additional details.
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