Long Beach lawmaker’s bill targeting addictive social media features signed
LONG BEACH (KESQ) - Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, hailed the signing today of legislation he authored barring social media platforms from offering certain addictive features to users under 16, part of a package of new California laws aimed at protecting children online.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1709 in Marin County along with more than a dozen other digital-safety measures. The Lowenthal bill prohibits platforms from offering features defined as psychologically exploitative and designed to maximize engagement in ways that foreseeably lead to compulsive use among children under 16.
Prohibited features include infinite scrolling and algorithmic autoplay, with the state attorney general authorized to define additional features through regulations.
"Today, all of us are saying the same thing,'' Lowenthal said. "We're saying (that) we don't have to take it anymore, and families in the state of California -- you don't have to take it anymore.''
AB 1709 passed both houses of the Legislature without a dissenting vote.
The measure is the first law of its kind in the nation prohibiting social media platforms from providing addictive features to users under 16. The legislation comes amid growing efforts in the United States and abroad to regulate social media use by children.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed AB 1709, contending the measure could restrict young people's access to online forums and prompt platforms to use age-verification systems involving government identification or biometric information. The group called the measure a ``massive privacy and free speech nightmare.''
Newsom defended the approach, saying the law targets features designed to keep young users engaged rather than imposing a broad social media ban.
"This is about the features themselves,'' Newsom said. "This is about addressing the problem: the scrolling, the algorithms. This is about addressing the substantive issue around the engineering.''
Other measures in the package impose restrictions on artificial intelligence chatbots used by children, strengthen youth digital privacy protections and expand laws involving digitally altered or AI-generated child sexual exploitation material.
Lowenthal called the measures a "bold first step."
"We're laying the groundwork for what comes next,'' Lowenthal said. "Stronger protections. Smarter enforcement. More accountability for the platforms that have treated our children's attention as a product to be mined."
