Governor Newsom signs bills to further strengthen California’s leadership in protecting children online

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed new landmark legislation to further strengthen the state’s protections for children online and create safeguards for new and emerging technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI). The legislation adds required features for platforms and products such as age verification, protocols to address suicide and self-harm, warnings regarding social media and companion chatbots, and stronger penalties for those who profit from illegal deepfakes — helping to ensure children’s safety remains front and center. The bills will help protect children online by creating:

• New safeguards on AI chatbots by establishing requirements that “companion chatbot” platforms create protocols to identify and address users’ suicidal ideation or expressions of self-harm. Platforms must also disclose that interactions are artificially generated, and minors must be provided break reminders and prevented from viewing sexually explicit images generated by the chatbot. Platforms will be required to share protocols for dealing with self-harm and statistics regarding how often they provided users with crisis center prevention notifications to the Department of Public Health. Legislation also establishes a prohibition against chatbots representing themselves as health care professionals. 
• Required age verifications by operating system and app store providers to help prevent children from accessing inappropriate or dangerous content online. 
• Social media warning labels to help warn young users about the harms associated with extended use of social media platforms. 
• Stronger penalties for deepfake pornography by expanding the cause of action to allow victims, including minors,  to seek civil relief of up to $250,000 per action against third parties who knowingly facilitate or aid in the distribution of nonconsensual sexually explicit material.
• Guidance to prevent cyberbullying through requiring the California Department of Education (CDE), on or before June 1, 2026, to adopt a model policy on how to address reported acts of cyberbullying that occur outside of school hours, and requires local educational agencies to adopt the resulting policy or a similar policy developed with local input.
• Clear accountability for harm caused by AI technology by preventing those who develop, alter, or use artificial intelligence from escaping liability by asserting that the technology acted autonomously.