California Just Put New Limits on Kids' Social Media
Personalized feeds and autoplay are among the features facing new restrictions for users under 16.
By Jill Murphy, Common Sense Media
Edition #29 | September 11, 2026
California Says Some Features Do Go Too Far
This week, three new bills that will directly impact our kids' tech use were signed into law. If you missed it in the back-to-school scramble, you're going to want to read this. Together, the new laws aim to address the physical and mental health effects that social media and AI chatbots can cause for kids.
California will be the first state in the country to ban certain "addictive features" for users under 16, including personalized feeds and autoplay, the stuff designed to keep a kid scrolling past when they thought to stop. (I'm putting my sneaky Snap user on notice.)
Platforms can still let younger teens have accounts. They just can't set up those accounts with features built to hook them. Companies also have to verify a user's age before serving those features at all, and the bill passed without a single "no" vote in either the state Assembly or the Senate!
There are penalties, too: up to $50,000 per affected minor for known violations, and $25,000 for negligent ones, plus an independent commission within the Department of Justice to monitor what happens next. Belated? Maybe. But putting accountability back on the companies is a move in the right direction.
Parents can't out-parent product design. For years, online safety has been treated mostly as a household management problem. Parents set limits, monitor accounts, and try to keep up with whatever changed in the latest update. This law puts more of that responsibility on the companies designing the experience in the first place. It doesn't ask your 14-year-old to have more willpower than an engineering team built to hook them.
It's also not happening in isolation. Australia, the U.K., Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries are all testing versions of the same idea: reshaping how social media works for kids under 16. Of course, this law doesn't take effect until 2027, which leaves parents with the familiar question: What do we do now? Our Parents' Ultimate Guide to Parental Controls breaks down the options app by app.
The law takes effect January 1, 2027, and only in California. But the idea behind it doesn't need a law for you to act on it tonight:
- Figure out what keeps restarting the attention loop. Not "how much time," but "what keeps pulling you back in." Streaks, autoplay, an endless feed, and "just checking notifications" are different problems with different fixes.
- Look at the account settings together. Most platforms already let you turn off autoplay or switch a feed to chronological, even without a law forcing it.
- Have a conversation about why an app is built to be hard to put down.
Tonight's to-do:
→ Open one app your kid uses daily and find the autoplay or feed-personalization setting together. You don't need the law's permission to turn it off tonight.
Extra credit: Most parents know us for movie or book reviews, or breaking down some complicated concepts into parenting advice you can use. But behind the scenes, our organization is just as passionate about the work I mentioned above. So just a shout-out to my incredible colleagues on our Advocacy team and our founder Jim Steyer, for drafting these bills and working tirelessly to move them forward. I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this organization.
Remembering 9/11, 25 Years Later
Today marks 25 years since September 11, 2001. Most kids, and plenty of teens, know it only as history. For them, it's not "the news that day," it's a chapter in class, a clip online, or a story they know in pieces.
Books and films can help fill in the picture without throwing everything at them at once. They give kids a way in that isn't just a scary headline or a viral video clip, and they let the conversation happen at a pace that fits the kid in front of you.
A few ways to think about age:
Little kids (5–7): Stick to stories about heroism, helpers, firefighters, community, and kindness, rather than the details of the attack.
Big kids/tweens (8–12): Historical fiction and nonfiction can introduce what happened with enough context to make sense of it without overwhelming them.
Teens (13+): They can take in more direct documentary footage and firsthand accounts. Watching together is still a good idea. Some of the footage is difficult, even for adults.
Tonight's to-do:
→ Ask your kid what they already know about 9/11, where they learned it, and what they still wonder about. You might be surprised how thin (or how skewed) the picture is.
What to Read:
→ Kids' Books About 9/11, with age-based picks from picture books through teen novels.
What to Watch:
→ United 93 for teens, World Trade Center for teens, or Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror for older teens.
One More Thing
If you've ever wondered what's really happening on your kid's phone between the morning alarm and bedtime, we have something for you.
Next week, Aura Parents and Common Sense Media are walking through a full school day, from the morning commute, to devices at school, to whatever happens once everyone gets home. Aura will bring the research on school-year screen habits, and we'll bring the age-based guidance.
It's a closer look at when and how kids are using their
Jill Murphy is Chief Content Officer at Common Sense Media, where she leads content strategy across media ratings and reviews, parenting advice, and resources that help families navigate media and technology. During more than two decades at Common Sense, she has helped build and evolve its editorial work to keep pace with changing platforms, audience needs, and the digital lives of kids. But first and foremost, she is a mom of two girls, a lot of pets, and shares this chaos and delights in her parenting fails with her husband, Steve.