![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GavinNewsomAI.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe move comes hours after a researcher\u2019s resignation post has reignited fears about the direction of new technology. <\/p>\n
Sep 10, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 5:07 pm PT<\/p>\n
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Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at Google’s San Francisco office in on Aug. 7, 2025. One of bills the governor signed Thursday restricts addictive social media features for kids under 16; another requires AI chatbot operators to prove their products are safe.
\n\u00a0(Tayfun Coskun\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of online child safety bills<\/a> Thursday, enacting some of the strongest protections<\/a> for young users in the country.<\/p>\n The measures include Senate Bill 1119<\/a>, co-authored by Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, and Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, which requires operators of AI companion chatbots to assess the risks their products pose to children, document what they find and hand the results to an independent auditor. The bill also requires parental controls and in-app crisis support.<\/p>\n Assembly Bill 2<\/a>, from Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, raises the damages a large social media company can face when its conduct harms a child. Lowenthal pursued<\/a> the measure across three legislative sessions.<\/p>\n AB 1709<\/a> bars social media platforms from serving addictive engagement features to users under 16. It passed the Legislature without a no vote.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re establishing a framework,\u201d Newsom said in a press conference<\/a> Thursday announcing the package, \u201cso that we can really enact a more aggressive posture as it relates to enforcement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n First partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom also spoke at the event, reflecting her behind-the-scenes engagement with the policy debate over how best to protect children online. \u201cToday has been a long time in coming,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd this one is truly for the kids. The kids who are with us, and the kids, like Adam and Owl, who are not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Standing behind the documentary filmmaker were two mothers of children who died by suicide: Maria Raine<\/a> and Victoria Hinks<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an incredible moment,\u201d said Jim Steyer, whose group, Common Sense Media, backed all three bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just as some government procurement contracts already hold AI developers accountable to federal law, Bauer-Kahan said the bills just signed into law would establish an auditing scheme in California.<\/p>\n The registry will begin to take shape in January, and Bauer-Kahan said it will expand to include a new category of job with a short history: that of the AI auditor.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MetaTeensGetty.jpg\")
Three teenage boys look at their smartphone screens on April 11, 2026. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he will sign a bill that prohibits social media platforms from providing addictive features to users under the age of 16, the first law of its kind in the nation.\u00a0(Matt Cardy\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2291604853-scaled-e1789079469144.jpg\")
Media gathers to hear remarks from Victoria Hinks, whose daughter, Alexandra \u201cOwl\u201d Hinks, died in a case that prosecutors allege was related to social media use, outside of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building on Aug. 26, 2026, in Oakland, California. Hinks appeared with First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom at the signing of the new child safety laws on Sept. 10, 2026.\u00a0(Heather Diehl\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n