California’s Newsom signs online kid safety laws, including rules backed by Sam Altman

SACRAMENTO, California — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday greenlit sweeping new child safety rules for social media and AI chatbots, including a law backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, amid mounting political pressure to regulate tech giants.

Newsom’s decision to sign the bills comes at a pivotal moment for Silicon Valley. State and national lawmakers are calling for stricter AI regulations after current and former researchers for Anthropic and OpenAI warned this week that the technology, if left unchecked, poses existential risks to humanity. Meta, Google, Snap and TikTok are also facing hundreds of child safety lawsuits, including a blockbuster case Meta settled last month by agreeing to pay states up to $18 billion.

But Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential candidate, called the settlement a “drop in the bucket” — and he argued that the federal government should expand on California’s online safety rules.

“We’re going to again lead the nation, but the bar is pretty damn low, and that’s what’s so frustrating,” Newsom said shortly before he signed the bills at an event in the San Francisco Bay Area. “The United States of America can’t get out of its own damn way? Congress and the president can’t lead to get this done? It’s an abomination; it’s absurd.”

The laws will establish what Newsom described as nation-leading guardrails designed to shield young people from potential risks associated with unchecked social media and AI use. They increase companies’ legal liability to protect kids’ health and ban teens under 16 from accessing certain “addictive” social media features.

One of the laws, SB 1119, requires AI chatbots to verify users’ ages, limits kids’ exposure to inappropriate content and restricts AI companies’ ability to advertise to minors. Its authors and kids’ safety groups backing the bill, including Common Sense Media, say the protections are a response to a recent string of lawsuits accusing chatbots of contributing to teen deaths by suicide and other child harms.

It’s also known as “Adam’s Law,” named for Adam Raine, a California teen who died by suicide after what his family said were extensive conversations with ChatGPT about self-harm tactics. Raine’s family is suing OpenAI over the incident, and his mother, Maria Raine, spoke at Thursday’s bill signing ceremony.

“It will save lives and prevent other serious harms — and hopefully lead other states to enact similar protections,” Maria Raine said.

OpenAI backed the bill just as it cleared the state Legislature at the end of last month, which came after lawmakers added language clarifying when chatbots can “remember” prior conversations and retain minors’ data with parents’ permission. Altman contacted Newsom about the bill before lawmakers voted on it, but according to OpenAI, they did not ultimately speak.

“They have to have default settings that are the most protective of our children, which includes the lack of persistent memory,” said Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who co-authored the bill with Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and state Sen. Steve Padilla. “It’s the most important piece because had the chatbot not remembered so much about Adam, it couldn’t have isolated him, hooked him, and eventually coached him to take his life.”

Newsom alluded to the industry’s lobbying around the bill and its shifting positions, saying a book could be written about it. That involved defenses of the status quo, he added, that turned into “acknowledgement that the status quo is unacceptable” and a willingness, “kicking and screaming, to walk hand-in-hand across the finish line.”

In a statement after Newsom’s signing, OpenAI global policy chief Chris Lehane said the law “meets the moment for parents and sets teens up for educational success,” giving lawmakers “enormous credit for leveraging the California platform to enact the leading law of the land.”

Tech giant Meta also weighed in Thursday. Company spokesperson Jim Cullinan said the bill is “not perfect” but takes “a meaningful step” toward balancing AI’s risks and benefits.

Another law signed Thursday, Democratic Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal’s AB 1709, will ban social media companies from offering children under 16 access to personalized feeds — also known as “For You” pages — as well as other features designed to maximize screen time, like infinite scrolling and video autoplay. It still allows kids to use social media platforms if those features are deactivated.

That law also requires platforms to check kids’ ages under a California law passed last year, AB 1043. Starting in January, AB 1043 will prompt users to enter their birth date when setting up a new phone or laptop, and require device manufacturers to share users’ ages with apps.

The new law, AB 1709, has been hailed by some youth online safety advocates as a more measured approach than regulations in Australia and Malaysia that have outright banned teens from accessing social media or creating accounts on platforms. But other advocates have raised concerns, including that the law may limit LGBTQ+ kids’ ability to find support online, or prove difficult to enforce because users could dodge age-checks by lying about their birth date.

Newsom argued California’s approach was “better than what they did” in Australia because it “is about the features themselves.”

“This is about actually addressing the problem, the scrolling, the algorithms,” he added.

Meta, a major focus of ongoing lawsuits and often of lawmakers pursuing tougher social media guardrails, seemed to push back on the bill Thursday. In a statement, company spokesperson Cullinan said personalization is how the company “deliver[s] age-appropriate content for teens that is relevant to them — all with the proper guardrails in place.”

Meta, Google, Snap, TikTok and other social media giants haven’t publicly supported or opposed AB 1709, though the companies have lobbied on the bill, according to recent filings.

A third law, Lowenthal’s AB 2, threatens fines of up to $1 million per child in cases where tech platforms are found liable for fostering anxiety, depression or other child harms. The bill also triples payouts in certain cases where courts find children or families are owed significant damages, meaning companies could be forced to pay more than $1 million.

“We want oversight. We want accountability. We’re done asking nicely, and we’re demanding that there is a duty of care across these platforms — a duty that puts the wellness of our children ahead of profits,” Lowenthal said during the signing ceremony.

In total, Newsom approved 13 laws relating to youth online safety and privacy Thursday. Those also include a bill that will ban schools from requiring kindergarten and transitional kindergarten students to take home devices like iPads and Chromebooks, and another prohibiting companies from selling certain AI-enabled toys.

Newsom still has other AI bills, including some of labor groups’ top priorities, on his desk. He previewed additional action to come and “a lot more in the data center space,” as soon as early next week.