Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> 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.<\/p>\nProhibited features include infinite scrolling and algorithmic autoplay, with the state attorney general authorized to define additional features through regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, all of us are saying the same thing,\u201d Lowenthal said. \u201cWe\u2019re saying (that) we don\u2019t have to take it anymore, and families in the state of California \u2014 you don\u2019t have to take it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
AB 1709 passed both houses of the Legislature without a dissenting vote.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed AB 1709, contending the measure could restrict young people\u2019s access to online forums and prompt platforms to use age-verification systems involving government identification or biometric information. The group called the measure a \u201cmassive privacy and free speech nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newsom defended the approach, saying the law targets features designed to keep young users engaged rather than imposing a broad social media ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about the features themselves,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cThis is about addressing the problem: the scrolling, the algorithms. This is about addressing the substantive issue around the engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Lowenthal called the measures a \u201cbold first step.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re laying the groundwork for what comes next,\u201d Lowenthal said. \u201cStronger protections. Smarter enforcement. More accountability for the platforms that have treated our children\u2019s attention as a product to be mined.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH \u2013 Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, hailed the signing Thursday of legislation he authored barring social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[181357,181358,76899,131,133,132],"class_list":["post-459905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-ab-1709","tag-assembly-bill-1709","tag-josh-lowenthal","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}