California has introduced tougher safeguards for children using social media platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) companion chatbots.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed 13 bills on Thursday to protect children from online risks, according to a statement from the governor’s office on Friday.
Under the new measures, covered social media platforms will be prohibited from offering users under 16 certain addictive features, including personalised feeds and autoplay.
The measures also eliminate parental consent as an exception for the restricted features and require platforms to verify users’ ages before granting access.
One of the measures, Senate Bill 1119, known as “Adam’s Law,” establishes additional safety requirements for children under 18 who use AI companion chatbots.
The law was named after Adam Raine, a 16-year-old California teenager who died by suicide in 2025 after interacting with ChatGPT, according to State Sen. Steve Padilla, one of the bill’s authors.
Adam’s Law requires chatbot operators to conduct child safety risk assessments and establish protocols for responding to suicidal ideation and self-harm.
It also requires parental controls, clear notices informing children when they are interacting with AI, and safeguards against chatbots encouraging children to depend on them for emotional support.
The law further provides for independent child safety audits.
Chatbots are required by default to limit children’s continuous use to one hour and total daily use to two hours; parents can modify the limits or disable access for children under 16.
Another law provides for statutory damages against social media platforms with annual gross revenue exceeding 100 million dollars if their failure to exercise ordinary care results in injury to a child.
The damages would be the greater of five thousand dollars per violation, capped at one million dollars per child, or three times the child’s actual damages.
The remaining measures cover children’s privacy, age verification, school-issued electronic devices, student data, digital wellness and digitally altered or AI-generated material depicting child sexual exploitation.
