{"slug": "california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai", "title": "California Governor Signs Laws Protecting Kids From Risks of Social Media, AI Chatbots", "summary": "California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of laws on Thursday that penalize large social media companies up to $1 million per child for negligent harm to children, ban addictive feeds for users under 16, require AI chatbot operators to perform risk assessments before launch, and let families opt out of school-issued laptops. Newsom also signed two AI oversight laws supported by Anthropic on Wednesday, one requiring the state to set rules for independent organizations evaluating AI model safety risks and another creating a registry of financially independent AI auditors. Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan said, \"Yet we've allowed technology to be handed to our children and never asked or expected it to be safe.", "body_md": "An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping package of laws Thursday aimed at protecting children from the risks of technology, including social media and AI chatbots. The laws will penalize large social media companies up to $1 million per child if they are found negligent of harming children through their platforms, ban tech businesses from offering addictive feeds to anyone under 16, require operators of AI chatbots to perform risk assessments before rolling them out and allow families to opt out of receiving school-issued laptops.\n \nNewsom joined his wife and state lawmakers at a children's museum near San Francisco to stress the importance of protecting kids at a time when they have such easy access to social media and AI chatbots. \"We have designed cribs to be safe, chairs to be safe, car seats,\" Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan said. \"Yet we've allowed technology to be handed to our children and never asked or expected it to be safe.\" [...]\n \nNewsom also signed laws Wednesday, which are supported by Anthropic, that are aimed at improving oversight of AI companies. One of the measures requires the state to create rules for independent organizations to evaluate the safety risks of AI models, and the other requires the state to create a registry of AI auditors, who'd have to be financially independent from the businesses they are auditing.\n[Read more of this story](https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/11/0615224/california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai-chatbots?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed) at Slashdot.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai", "canonical_source": "https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/11/0615224/california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai-chatbots?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed", "published_at": "2026-09-11 15:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-11 15:11:26.728056+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-safety", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Gavin Newsom", "California", "Anthropic", "Rebecca Bauer-Kahan", "Associated Press"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/california-governor-signs-laws-protecting-kids-from-risks-of-social-media-ai.jsonld"}}