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California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed more than a dozen laws to strengthen online safety for children, including a measure restricting social media companies from providing addictive features to users under 16.
Newsom signed the laws on Thursday during a ceremony near San Francisco, where he said California’s approach was more targeted than Australia’s ban on social media for people under 16.
He said the California law focuses on design features that encourage prolonged use, such as infinite scrolling and algorithm-driven recommendations, rather than imposing a blanket age-based ban.
“This is different than what Australia did,” Newsom said.
“This is about the features themselves. This is about actually addressing the problem, the scrolling, the algorithms. This is about addressing the substantive issue around the engineering. If you address that, then the age issue is not the essential issue,” he continued.
Australia’s social media restrictions for users under 16 took effect in December, but early reports have raised questions about their effectiveness. A report released by the Australian government in July found that enforcement had been inconsistent and many children continued to use social media.
Under California’s new law, users under 16 are not completely barred from social media platforms. Instead, the measure defines addictive features as those considered “psychologically exploitative” and prohibits companies from offering children features such as infinite scroll, algorithmic recommendations and autoplay.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has already agreed to adopt a similar approach under a settlement with California and dozens of other US states. The states had sued the company over alleged violations of laws concerning children’s privacy and consumer protections.
A Meta spokesperson said on Thursday that the company was committed to providing teenagers with safe and age-appropriate experiences on Facebook and Instagram, with safeguards in place.
Snap, TikTok and Google-owned YouTube did not respond to requests for comment.
The new California measures come as governments and regulators around the world consider ways to reduce the impact of social media on children and teenagers.
Other laws signed by Newsom on Thursday address chatbots, age verification, child sexual abuse material and technology use in schools.
The European Union (EU) is also expected to reveal its own plans for regulating social media use among children next week. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc should not accept social media designs that encourage addictive use.
She is considering EU-wide restrictions on social media for children under 13, as recommended by an expert panel, as well as a blanket ban for those under 15, an option strongly backed by France.
