California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a bill Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will sign, his office said Friday.
California will follow New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform’s algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children’s access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California bill will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world after similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night, Newsom said in a statement. With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits.
The bill bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children’s accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their age. Some argue it would threaten online privacy by making platforms collect more information on users.
The bill defines an addictive feed as a website or app in which multiple pieces of media generated or shared by users are, either concurrently or sequentially, recommended, selected, or prioritized for display to a user based, in whole or in part, on information provided by the user, or otherwise associated with the user or the user’s device, with some exceptions.
