Published September 21, 2026
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of more than a dozen bills on September 10, 2026, aimed at protecting minors from harms tied to social media platforms and AI chatbots. The centerpiece, SB 1119 — dubbed "Adam's Law" after Adam Raine, a teenager whose death has been linked to chatbot interactions — requires companion chatbot operators to build in crisis protocols for users expressing suicidal ideation, parental controls, notifications when safety settings are disabled, and annual third-party risk assessments.
A companion measure, AB 1709, restricts addictive feed designs and sets age restrictions for covered platforms serving minors, while establishing a new state e-Safety Advisory Commission. Other bills in the package create civil penalties for platforms that injure children, require age-verification signals in software, expand reporting requirements for child sexual abuse material, and let families opt out of school-issued laptops. Governor Newsom said the laws reflect that "innovation comes with responsibility and protecting our children comes first."
The new laws arrive as thousands of lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, Snap, and Google over allegedly addictive platform design move through both state and federal courts, and as separate wrongful-death suits target AI chatbot makers including Character.AI and OpenAI. California's legislation doesn't resolve any of that litigation, but it signals where regulators are heading: toward mandatory safety testing and crisis-response design requirements rather than case-by-case liability findings alone. For families already pursuing a claim, state rules like these can reinforce the argument that platforms knew — or should have known — about foreseeable risks to minors.
If a minor in your family was harmed by a social media platform's design or by an AI chatbot interaction, new state regulation doesn't change your ability to pursue a claim now — and filing deadlines vary by state. See Atumio's Social Media Addiction case page for a free, confidential eligibility review, or start your case review directly.