California's governor Gavin Newsom has signed a wide ranging bill to limit the ability of social media companies to provide feeds to minors that politicians claim to be addictive. Newsom signed Senate Bill 976, named the Protecting Our Kids From
Social Media Addiction Act and introduced by state Senator Nancy Skinner. Of course the fundamental social media 'algorithm' is to provide a user with more of the content that they showed they enjoyed. Politicians and campaigners would clearly
prefer that users would instead get a feed of what they 'should' be enjoying. The legislation was widely opposed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of California, Equality California and associations representing giants in the
industry that own TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. The California Chamber of Commerce argued that the legislation unconstitutionally burdens access to lawful content, setting up the potential for another lawsuit in an ongoing court battle between the
state and social media companies over use of the platforms by children. The bill, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2027, with Newsom's signature, prohibits internet service and applications from providing addictive feeds, defined as media curated based
on information gathered on or provided by the user, to minors without parental consent. SB 976 also bans companies from sending notifications to users identified as minors between midnight and 6 a.m. or during the school day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. unless
parents give the OK. The bill will effectively require companies to make posts from people children know and follow appear in chronological order on their social media feeds instead of in an arrangement to maximize engagement. The bill doesn't
specifically mandate age verification but the policies outlined above do require the internet companies to know the age of a user whether specified or not. | 
