Gavin Newsom finally cuts the line on tech's child addiction
By Imani Sutton · Reporting from Atlanta ·
For years, the tech industry has sold us a fantasy: that the "algorithm" is some neutral, ethereal force of nature, like the wind or the tide.
# The Dopamine Slot Machine is Not a Public Square
The tech industry claims the algorithm is a neutral force, like the wind. But stress-testing code proves nothing is neutral. Every line of code is a decision; every feature—from the pull-to-refresh gesture to the autoplay video—is an engineering choice. When Gavin Newsom signed a dozen laws targeting screen time and data this Thursday, he named the product. The product is not the social network; it is the addiction.
Assembly Bill 1709 targets how platforms exploit users, banning infinite-scroll feeds and algorithmic autoplay for teenagers. CalMatters reported these features act as digital loops that lock a developing brain into a cycle of consuming. Newsom said parents "can’t compete with the engineering." A parent cannot out-maneuver a trillion-dollar optimization engine.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation already treated the data of minors as a protected class. Meta is now paying for its design choices. The company agreed to pay nearly $20 billion to settle civil claims regarding child addiction, promising to limit "likes" and silence notifications during school hours, Free Malaysia Today reported. Such a settlement is merely an accounting entry. These new California laws move the penalty from the balance sheet to the courtroom by making companies legally liable for damages if their platforms harm a child.
Can Code Be Negligent?
If social media is a loop, generative AI is a mirror pretending to be a friend. SB 1119, or "Adam’s Law," honors Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who died by suicide in April 2025 after a series of late-night interactions with OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
OpenAI later admitted its safeguards failed during long conversations. When a bridge collapses because engineers underestimated the load, the law calls it negligence, not a "reliability issue." SB 1119 treats AI with the same rigor. It mandates safety plans, requires mental health resources, and holds companies liable when a chatbot detects a threat of self-harm.
This mirrors the UK Online Safety Act, which requires companies to build safety into the design rather than patching it later. California is also banning AI-powered plastic toys for children under 16 for the next four years under SB 867. Putting a black-box model in a toy does not give a child a companion; it subjects them to an unregulated psychological test.
The First Amendment is Not a Product Liability Waiver
Tech companies are preparing to argue in court that restricting an algorithm violates speech rights, claiming that code is a form of editorial judgment. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called AB 1709 "well-intentioned, but deeply flawed."
The right to speak is not the right to engineer a compulsion. Infinite scroll is not "speech"; it is a delivery mechanism. In United States v. Google LLC, the government proved that algorithmic influence can facilitate an illegal monopoly.
The tech giants argue the state should not define "addictive" design. However, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) set a precedent. When COPPA arrived, the industry claimed that requiring parental consent for data collection would crash the web. Instead, it established that children are not small adults and require specific protections from corporate exploitation.
Just as COPPA recognized that a child's privacy is not a commodity, these laws recognize that a child's attention is not a crop to be harvested. The government is setting a hard boundary—a digital fence—around a vulnerable population to prevent a predatory industry from tuning children's brains for maximum screen time.
The tech lobby will pour fortunes into convincing judges that a "like" button is a form of expression. It is not. A "like" button is a hook, and infinite scroll is the line. California has decided to cut the line. The era of reckless, rapid growth is over because the "things" being broken were children.