California governor signs law to limit U-16s social media risks

California governor Gavin Newsom signed more than a dozen new laws on Thursday that address various aspects of children’s safety online, including one that prohibits social media companies from serving addictive features to users under 16 years old. During a signing ceremony, Newsom described the restrictions as “better” than Australia’s ban for all users under 16.“This is about the features themselves. This is about addressing the substantive issue around the engineering. If you address that, then the age issue is not the essential issue,” Newsom said. The new law defines “addictive” features as ones that are “psychologically exploitative” and prohibits social media companies from providing children with features such as infinite scroll, algorithmic recommendations and autoplay.