PRESS RELEASE: EPIC Applauds Gov. Newsom For Signing Prohibition on Addictive Features, Changes to California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – EPIC applauds Governor Newsom for signing into law California’s A.B. 1709, which prohibits social media platforms from making addictive design features available to users under 16 years old.

“This is different than what Australia did. This is better than what they did,” Governor Newsom said upon signing A.B. 1709. “This is about the features themselves. This is about actually addressing the problem. The scrolling, the algorithms. This is addressing the substantive issues around the engineering. . . And that’s what makes this truly a significant and consequential bill and something we are proud to claim is national leading in terms of addressing social media harms for kids 16 and under.”

A.B. 1709 began as a complete ban on youth social media access. EPIC, in close partnership with youth online safety advocates, worked with lawmakers to amend the bill to target the root cause of kids’ compulsive use of social media: Big Tech’s manipulative design practices. As EPIC has previous written, targeting the features that induce compulsive use is more effective than banning kids from social media and also more constitutionally sound.

“California’s AB 1709 takes the right approach to protecting kids online,” said Megan Iorio, Director of EPIC’s Platform Governance & Accountability Program. “Design features that manipulate kids are the problem. Prohibiting these features, as AB 1709 does, provides a solution that is more effective than banning kids from social media and does not infringe on kids’ constitutional rights to access digital spaces.”

At the same signing ceremony, Governor Newsom also signed into law amendments to California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code. These changes address the limited issues identified by two Ninth Circuit decisions in NetChoice’s constitutional challenge, setting the stage for California to be able to enforce the law moving forward.

EPIC applauds California for its continued leadership in taking a design-based approach to protecting kids online. EPIC is especially grateful for the California Legislature, particularly Assembly member Lowenthal and his staff, for incorporating both young people’s online experiences and EPIC’s legal expertise in constitutional online safety regulation into this important legislation.

Earlier this year, EPIC published a model Age-Appropriate Design Code that reflects a constitutional way to protect kids online by prohibiting addictive design features for minors, giving them control over their privacy, and preventing companies from designing to promote compulsive use.