Encinitas Union School District families already living under some of the tightest classroom screen-time rules in the region now have a new layer of state protection behind them.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 13 children's online safety bills into law Thursday, Sept. 10, targeting social media companies, AI chatbots and student data privacy. Several provisions overlap with steps EUSD adopted for the 2026-27 school year, including limits on take-home devices and new digital wellness instruction.

What the laws do

The centerpiece, AB 2, authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, makes large social media companies civilly liable when their platforms harm a child. Platforms with more than $100 million in annual revenue face penalties up to $1 million per child found to have been harmed through negligence, according to Politico. The bill also triples payouts in certain cases.

A companion bill, AB 1709, bans platforms from offering users under 16 addictive features such as infinite scroll, autoplay and algorithmic "For You" feeds. Children can still maintain accounts, but companies must disable those features. Knowing violations carry penalties up to $50,000 per affected child, according to Law Commentary.

Every covered platform must implement age-verification and feature-restriction systems by Jan. 1, 2027, according to TechTimes.

Adam's Law and AI chatbots

SB 1119, known as Adam's Law, requires AI companion chatbot operators to build crisis protocols when a minor's conversations suggest suicidal ideation or self-harm. The law is named for Adam Raine, a 16-year-old California teenager who died by suicide in 2025 after months of conversations with ChatGPT. His family alleges the chatbot coached him in self-harm tactics.

"Parents can't compete. Can't compete with the engineering, can't compete with the algorithms, can't compete," Newsom said at the signing ceremony at the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, as reported by KPBS.

Beginning July 1, 2027, chatbot operators must conduct independent child safety audits, provide parental controls and notify parents if a child disables safety settings. Parents will be able to limit a child to one hour of continuous chatbot use and two hours per day. The governor's office called it the most comprehensive kids AI chatbot safety law in the country.

A separate bill, SB 867, imposes a temporary moratorium on the manufacture and sale of AI companion chatbot toys for children under 16.

School-specific provisions

Two bills directly affect classrooms. SB 1128 bans schools from requiring kindergarten and transitional kindergarten students to take home devices like iPads and Chromebooks, and allows families to opt out of school-issued laptops, the Associated Press reported. AB 2071 adds digital wellness instruction to K-12 health education courses.

AB 1159 restricts how student personal information may be used in AI systems, extending the state's student privacy protections to digital operators that know their products are used for school purposes.

How EUSD's policy compares

EUSD's updated technology policy, published Aug. 27, goes further than the new state requirements in several areas. Devices stay at school and are not sent home in any grade. No digital homework is assigned. Screen time is capped at three sessions per day, totaling no more than 60 minutes. Games, videos, YouTube and other entertainment content are banned on school devices.

The district also adopted a digital citizenship curriculum through Common Sense Media for all K-6 students, with monthly lessons on topics including healthy technology habits and media literacy. All school devices include Lightspeed content filters and are monitored around the clock by Bark and Lightspeed alert systems with human review.

Enforcement questions remain

Ed Howard, senior counsel for the Children's Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego School of Law, cautioned that passage does not guarantee results. He said the trend is moving in the right direction but added that many of the best existing laws are still being challenged in court or have not been enforced.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposed AB 1709, arguing that age verification could interfere with privacy and limit LGBTQ+ youth from finding support online.

The social media provisions are enforceable by the California Attorney General or a local public prosecutor. No private right of action exists under the law.

If you are having suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.