California limits addictive social media for under-16s

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed more than a dozen online child-safety laws on Thursday, including a measure that bars social media companies from giving users under 16 features defined as addictive.

The law does not ban under-16s from social media. It instead targets features described as “psychologically exploitative,” including infinite scroll, algorithmic recommendations and autoplay.

At a signing ceremony near San Francisco, Newsom said the California approach was different from Australia’s under-16 ban because it focused on platform design. He said the law addressed “the scrolling, the algorithms” and the engineering of social media products.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has already agreed to a similar approach as part of a settlement with California and dozens of other US states over allegations involving children’s privacy and consumer protections. A Meta spokesperson said the company is committed to providing teens with safe, age-appropriate experiences on Facebook and Instagram with proper safeguards.

Snap, TikTok and Google-owned YouTube did not respond to requests for comment.

Other laws signed by Newsom regulate chatbots, age verification, child sexual abuse content and technology use in schools. The European Union is expected to outline its own plan for children’s social media regulation next week.