SACRAMENTO, the United States, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed 13 bills to strengthen protections for children against online risks, particularly those involving social media and artificial intelligence (AI) companion chatbots.
The measures prohibit covered platforms from providing users under 16 with addictive features, including addictive feeds and autoplay, according to the governor's office. They also remove the parental-consent option for such users and require platforms to verify users' ages before providing the features.
Newsom also signed Senate Bill 1119, known as "Adam's Law," which establishes new safeguards for children under 18 who use companion chatbots. The law is named after Adam Raine, a 16-year-old California teenager who died by suicide in 2025 after interacting with ChatGPT, according to State Senator Steve Padilla, one of the bill's authors.
The law requires child-safety risk assessments, crisis protocols addressing suicidal ideation and self-harm, parental controls, notices informing children that they are interacting with AI, and measures to prevent chatbots from encouraging children to rely on them for emotional support.
The law also requires independent child-safety audits. By default, chatbots must limit children's continuous use to one hour and daily use to two hours, while parents can adjust the settings or disable access for children under 16.
Under another measure, a social media platform that generates more than 100 million U.S. dollars in annual gross revenue can be held liable for statutory damages if it fails to exercise ordinary care and causes injury to a child. The damages are the greater of 5,000 U.S. dollars per violation, capped at 1 million U.S. dollars per child, or three times the child's actual damages.
The other signed bills address areas including children's privacy, age assurance, school-issued electronic devices, student data, digital wellness and digitally altered or AI-generated material depicting child sexual exploitation, according to the governor's office. ■