California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent starting in 2027, under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
California is following the lead of New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their children from receiving social media posts suggested by a platform’s algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children’s access to social media, but those laws have been challenged in court.
The California law will take effect in a state that is home to some of the world’s largest tech companies. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-U.S. law in 2022 that would prohibit online platforms from using users’ personal information in ways that could harm children.
It’s part of a growing effort in states across the country to try to address the impact of social media on children’s well-being.
“Every parent knows the damage that social media addiction can do to their children: isolation, stress and anxiety, and endless hours lost late at night,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. “With this bill, California is helping to protect children and teens from the purposefully designed features that fuel these destructive habits.”
The law prohibits platforms from sending notifications without parental permission to minors between midnight and 6 a.m. and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September to May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also requires platforms to set children’s accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the law say it could inadvertently block adults from accessing content if they can’t verify their age. Some say it would threaten online privacy by forcing platforms to collect more information about users.
The law defines an “addictive feed” as a website or application “in which multiple user-generated or shared media items are, simultaneously or sequentially, recommended, selected, or prioritized for display to a user based, in whole or in part, on information provided by the user, or otherwise associated with the user or the user’s device,” with some exceptions.
The issue gained renewed attention in June, when U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require warnings on social media platforms and their impact on young people. Attorneys general from 42 states endorsed the plan in a letter sent to Congress last week.
State Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat representing Berkeley who wrote the California law, said that “social media companies designed their platforms to addict users, especially our children.”
“With the passage of SB 976, the California legislature has sent a clear message: When social media companies fail to act, it is our responsibility to protect our children,” she said in a statement.
