This California Social Media Law is a Privacy and Free Speech ‘Nightmare’

California, a state once brimming with optimism for a free and open internet, is now leading the country in online safety regulation. On Thursday, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 13 bills into law “strengthening California’s nation-leading protections for children online.” 

The laws will impose stricter regulations on AI chatbots, a moratorium on certain AI-enabled toys, and pricey penalties on social media companies that knowingly cause harm to children. One of the laws, Assembly Bill 1709, is a particularly “massive privacy and free speech nightmare,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The law requires social media platforms to “implement reasonable measures to ensure that users under 16 years of age are not offered or provided any addictive feature on the covered platform.” While these provisions intend to protect children, the EFF notes that the law’s implementation may have the opposite effect, as it would compel tech companies to implement age-gating measures to determine user ages. 

In a letter urging Newsom to veto the legislation, the EFF also warned that because the law “does not specify how verification should occur without requiring additional proof,” it will “result in platforms using the most invasive forms of age verification, such as requiring government-issued ID uploads or biometric scanning.” Companies that fail to comply would face civil penalties of up to $50,000 per affected minor for a knowing violation and up to $25,000 per minor for a negligent violation.  

The law also creates an e-Safety Advisory Commission, an “expert body” that would research and enforce internet safety law. Although the law states that the commission only exists for administrative purposes, it also says the commission shall report “recommendations for legislative changes to enhance the protection of minors online” to the Legislature and governor each year. These “experts” are to possess special knowledge from a variety of fields, including online safety, public health academia, marginalized youth advocacy, child psychology, and K-12 education. Unsurprisingly, First Amendment advocates and lawyers are not included on this list, as their expertise would likely thwart the state’s regulatory push. 

Common Sense Media founder and CEO Jim Steyer told The New York Times that Newsom’s newly signed laws “will set a standard for the whole nation.”

Steyer will likely be proven right. State and federal lawmakers appear eager to adopt more restrictive online safety laws, as Americans from across the political spectrum say they want the government to shield young minds and eyeballs from alleged online harms. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, a majority of Americans support banning social media for children under 16. Restricting internet freedom is only becoming more popular, even as the fallout from online safety legislation abroad should dissuade Americans from giving the state more power over the online world. As Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown has reported, the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act has effectively age-gated large swaths of the internet, “putting up roadblocks for people who want to read about world news, view classic art, listen to music on Spotify, chat with friends on Discord, play video games, find information about quitting smoking, or join antimasturbation groups.”

Opponents of these laws need not worship Big Tech or use social media or AI chatbots at all. While lawmakers insist that these apps are addictive and impossible to control without government intervention, apps can be deleted, and families and individuals can make their own choices about internet use. A socially led anti-tech movement is different than a governmentally imposed censorship regime. Unfortunately, California lawmakers fail to recognize this distinction, and they have taken it upon themselves to make the internet less free for all users.