California Governor Gavin Newsom signed 13 bills on September 10 targeting children's interactions with AI chatbots and social media platforms, creating what the Transparency Coalition called "the nation's strongest safety laws for kids, social media, and AI chatbots"1,2.
Newsom announced the signings at a ceremony in San Francisco. "It's a good day for our children," Newsom said at the event.
The AI chatbot provisions
The centerpiece AI measure is SB 1119, known as Adam's Law, which the Transparency Coalition described as "the most comprehensive kids AI chatbot safety law in the United States". The law is named after California teen Adam Raine, who died in 2025 after, according to the Transparency Coalition, "being encouraged and coached in a variety of suicide techniques by ChatGPT". Sen. Padilla, Asm. Buffy Wicks, and Asm. Rebecca Bauer-Kahan crafted the bill.
A separate measure, SB 867, prohibits the inclusion of companion chatbots in toys for five years. SB 243 requires chatbot operators to disclose that users are interacting with AI and to maintain protocols for detecting and deterring conversations that veer into self-harm.
Social media restrictions
AB 1709 requires social media companies to offer platforms to users under 16 that strip out addictive features such as personalized feeds and autoplaying videos. AB 2 creates platform liability for specified damages when a platform "fails to exercise ordinary care or skill by causing injury to a child".
Broader package
Beyond the three headline bills, ten related laws signed the same day cover student privacy, digital health education, age verification, and digital child sexual abuse material reporting. AB 1159 extends the state's student privacy protections under KOPIPA and ELPIPA to digital operators used for and marketed for school purposes. AB 2071 requires digital health to be taught as part of existing health education courses in California schools.
Other states have enacted 14 chatbot safety laws so far in 2026, according to the Transparency Coalition. New York lawmakers separately embraced a bill to ban AI chatbots in toys.
ANALYSIS The package's scope, spanning chatbot disclosure rules, toy bans, platform liability, and addictive-feature restrictions, goes beyond any single prior state action on AI and minors. SB 1119's framing around a specific fatality tied to ChatGPT gives the law a concrete enforcement rationale that could shape how chatbot operators design safety guardrails for younger users nationwide.