California Puts New Guardrails On AI Chatbots For Kids

California has signed a package of online safety laws that could shape how AI chatbots and social media platforms deal with children in the United States.

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the new measures on Wednesday, describing them as some of the strongest child safety rules in the country for companion chatbots and youth-focused social media protections. The official announcement says the laws cover AI chatbot safety protocols, parental controls, audits, addictive design features, targeted advertising, school data and AI-generated abuse material. You can read the governor’s office summary here.

One of the most closely watched measures is Adam’s Law, which targets companion chatbots and requires safety protocols for situations involving suicidal ideation or self-harm. The law also pushes for parental controls, child safety audits and notifications when a child disables certain safety settings. That is a direct response to the growing concern that young people may treat AI companions as emotionally intimate products even when the systems are not designed to carry that responsibility.

The laws do not stop at AI chatbots. California is also targeting addictive social media features for users under 16, including algorithmic feeds based on user profiles and autoplay-style designs. The state is trying to limit product mechanics that keep minors scrolling by default, a debate that has followed TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms for years.

Another major part of the package expands child sexual exploitation rules to cover AI-generated and digitally altered material. That matters because generative AI has made it easier to create realistic abusive images without an original photo in the traditional sense. Lawmakers are now trying to close gaps between older child protection laws and newer synthetic media tools.

The broader message is that AI safety is moving from voluntary company policy into law. TechBooky recently looked at how AI systems are already being misused in security-sensitive areas, and child safety may become one of the areas where governments move fastest.

For AI and social media companies, California is too large a market to ignore. Even when a law applies inside one state, its design can end up influencing product decisions elsewhere. The next question is how aggressively the rules will be enforced and whether other states or countries decide to copy the same playbook.