New California laws aim to protect kids from social media harms

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed laws aimed at protecting children from the potential harms of social media and AI chatbots. One of the laws will penalize large social media companies that are found negligent in harming children through their platforms. Another would ban tech businesses from offering addictive feeds to anyone under 16.

The new laws come weeks after California and other states reached an $18 billion settlement with Meta after alleging the company deliberately designed features to addict children to its platforms. Newsom has walked a fine line on technology policy during his nearly eight years serving as governor.

Read the original report at Apnews.