California enacts laws restricting chatbots and banning teens from ‘addictive’ social media
California teens will be barred from “addictive” social media products and limited in their interactions with chatbots under two of the 13 bills signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom last week to protect kids online.
The law on addictive social media may be the most controversial. It will require social media companies to either stop offering “addictive” tools like infinite scroll and autoplay to users under 16 or to keep those users off their platforms entirely.
Authors say the law is necessary to address a teenage mental health crisis and that it will force social media companies to take long-awaited action.
“Parents can’t compete. Can’t compete with the engineering, can’t compete with the algorithms,” Newsom said at a press conference announcing the laws. “You feel like you’re a lousy parent.”
But digital rights organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation urged Newsom to veto the bill, calling it “well-intentioned, but deeply flawed.” That organization said the bill defines “addictive features” so broadly that it would effectively create a full ban on social media for kids un...