By Sumayya
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed a sweeping package of legislation Thursday targeted at safeguarding youngsters from the hazards of technology, encompassing social networks and AI chatbots.
The legislation will penalize grand social network enterprises up to US$1 million per youngster if they are tracked negligent of injuring youngsters through their platforms, forbid tech corporations from offering compulsive feeds to anyone beneath 16 and mandate operators of AI chatbots to execute hazard evaluations prior to rolling them out.
Newsom coupled with his spouse and state legislators at a children’s museum near San Francisco to underscore the significance of safeguarding youngsters at a period when they possess such simple entry to social networks and AI chatbots.
“We have structured cradles to be secure, seats to be secure, vehicle seats,” Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan expressed. “Yet we’ve permitted technology to be delivered to our youngsters and never questioned or anticipated it to be secure.”
The legislative endorsements surface weeks after Meta attained a resolution with California and 28 alternative states after they asserted in a 2023 litigation that the tech colossus consciously structured components to hook youngsters. The enterprise concurred to disburse up to $18 billion and fortify its child safety protocols.
Newsom expressed the fresh legislation accentuates the state’s guidance on the matter.
“It’s a fine period for our youngsters,” he expressed. “It’s a fine period for the state of California.”
But Meta elevated anxieties regarding several of the bills, expressing the legislation to restrict compulsive feeds obstructs the enterprise’s capacity to supply enjoyable material to consumers on its platforms.
“We presume that delivering a tailored encounter is an essential segment of what renders Facebook and Instagram valuable for adolescents as they connect with lineage and companions and investigate their focuses — securely,” spokesperson Jim Cullinan expressed in a declaration. “Personalization is likewise how we deliver age-fitting material for adolescents that is germane to them — all with the proper protections positioned.”
The governor has traversed a delicate boundary on technology policy during his nearly eight annual cycles serving as governor in the nation’s most populated state, whose standing as a global tech center he has repeatedly praised in speeches.
He endorsed a law last year mandating platforms to remind consumers they are interacting with a chatbot and not a human. Hours subsequently, he vetoed a bill that would have forbidden enterprises from making AI chatbots accessible to anyone beneath 18 years old unless the corporations could guarantee the technology couldn’t engage in intimate dialogues or encourage self-injury.
Newsom likewise endorsed a law in 2024 to restrict student deployment of smartphones in academies.
Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, a Democrat who assisted draft the law to enforce punishments on enterprises for injuring youngsters, expressed it constituted a critical juncture to pass the fresh legislation.
“The velocity of technology is advancing quicker than governance can position protections in,” he expressed.
Newsom likewise endorsed legislation Wednesday that is targeted at improving supervision of AI enterprises.
The bills, which are backed by Anthropic, mandate the state to institute rules for independent bodies to evaluate the safety hazards of AI versions, create a record of AI auditors, who’d have to be financially separate from the corporations they remain auditing.
