Tech and AI
California signs thirteen child safety laws with statutory damages of up to one million dollars per child, a ban on algorithmic feeds for under-16s and mandatory audits of companion chatbots
By Staff Writer | 11 September 2026
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of thirteen bills on Thursday 10 September 2026 that exposes the largest social media platforms to statutory damages of 5,000 dollars a violation up to one million dollars per child, bars autoplay and history-based feeds for anyone under 16, and makes California the first state to require independent child safety audits and annual risk assessments of companion chatbots. It follows two laws signed the day before that create a state framework for independent verification of AI systems and a registry of AI auditors.
The signing took place at a children's museum in Marin County, with the First Partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and the bills' authors from both parties present. The Governor's office describes the package as the strongest chatbot and social media rules in the country, and the numbers in the statutes bear that out.
A damages regime, not a fine
The sharpest of the thirteen is AB 2, by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal. It adds a new section 1714.02 to the Civil Code. Where a social media platform with more than 100 million dollars a year in gross revenue injures a child through want of ordinary care, the platform is liable for statutory damages of the larger of 5,000 dollars per violation, up to a maximum of one million dollars per child, or three times the child's actual damages. Any waiver of the section is void as contrary to public policy.
Our children's safety deserves to be at the center of every conversation about technology. As innovation moves faster our protections must keep pace. Today's legislation makes clear that California will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk. Innovation comes with responsibility and protecting our children comes first.
Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, 10 September 2026
AB 2246, by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, prohibits platforms from providing users under 16 with addictive features, which the Governor's office defines as autoplay and algorithmic feeds based on the user's history and profile. AB 1856 deals with age verification signals in software applications, and AB 1159 and SB 1128 restrict the use of pupil data in AI systems and let families opt out of school-issued devices.
Chatbots: audits and crisis protocols
SB 1119, by Senator Steve Padilla with Assemblymembers Wicks and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, is named after a teenager who died last year and whose parents campaigned for it. It requires operators of companion chatbots to run crisis protocols where a child shows signs of suicidal ideation, to provide parental controls, and to notify a parent if a child disables safety settings. The Governor's office says it is the first law in the country to require companies to conduct independent child safety audits and annual risk assessments of these products. A companion bill, SB 867, applies the chatbot rules to toys.
Two further laws signed on Wednesday 9 September sit underneath the package. SB 813 establishes a framework for independent verification organisations that can assess AI systems and models for compliance with state law, and AB 1405, by Bauer-Kahan, creates a state registry of AI auditors with standards for their independence, transparency and integrity. Together with the 2025 Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, which requires frontier developers to publish safety frameworks and report critical incidents, California now has a disclosure law, an audit profession and a child safety regime that depends on both.
We have designed cribs to be safe, chairs to be safe, car seats. Yet we've allowed technology to be handed to our children and never asked or expected it to be safe.
Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, Assemblymember, California State Assembly
What the rest of the package does
SB 1276 expands the offence of sexual exploitation of a child to cover digitally altered or AI-generated material depicting a person under 18. AB 1946 requires a reporting mechanism for child sexual abuse material. AB 1709 creates an e-Safety Advisory Commission and age restrictions for covered platforms, and AB 2071, the one Republican-authored bill in the list, adds digital wellness to pupil instruction. AB 302 addresses addictive feeds in the systems schools use to communicate with pupils and parents, and AB 2298 sets content standards for computer science teaching.
For any company that serves users in the state the practical questions are already set: whether a feature counts as addictive for a user under 16, what an independent child safety audit must contain, and how a per-child cap of one million dollars in statutory damages reads against a platform's existing terms of service, given that waivers are now void. The Governor closed his release by repeating his call for federal rules; until Congress acts, the California statutes are the ones that will be litigated.