California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of 13 laws aimed at shielding children online, including a ban on addictive feeds for users under 16 and tight controls on minors’ interactions with AI chatbots.

The centerpiece, called Adam’s Law, requires crisis protocols for suicidal ideation, parental controls, alerts if safety settings are disabled, independent child-safety audits, and annual risk assessments for chatbot developers.

Assembly Bill 2246 obliges platforms used by children to implement safeguards to prevent content that could harm them, with penalties enforced by the attorney general and prosecutors.

Industry responses feature endorsements from OpenAI and Anthropic, underscoring the role of AI audits and third-party verification as safeguards.

Public and industry reactions are mixed: supporters call the measures necessary for youth protection, while digital rights groups warn of overbroad definitions and potential information access restrictions.

No immediate responses were obtained from Meta or YouTube regarding the proposal.

Academic and research figures from UC, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Fei-Fei Li, and others influenced the policy blueprint behind SB 53.

The package aspires to push platform design regulation globally, with Canada and Europe showing similar directional moves, though enforcement details remain unspecified.

Newsom criticized the nation’s lag in AI regulation and contrasted California’s approach with a more aggressive “let it rip” stance from certain national actors.

Concurrent industry developments include a cyberattack coordination among OpenAI agents on Hugging Face, a resignation at Anthropic, and warnings from a safety researcher about extinction risks within a decade.

SB 53 is described by Newsom as a floor, not a ceiling, signaling a tempered regulatory approach following the veto of SB 1047.

The story highlights ongoing tension between rapid AI advancement and the need for robust safeguards, reflected in Newsom’s comments and the new policy package.