20250AB__005690CHP INTRODUCED 2024-12-02 AMENDED_ASSEMBLY 2025-02-25 AMENDED_ASSEMBLY 2025-04-21 AMENDED_ASSEMBLY 2025-05-01 AMENDED_SENATE 2025-07-03 AMENDED_SENATE 2025-07-10 AMENDED_SENATE 2025-08-29 AMENDED_SENATE 2025-09-05 PASSED_ASSEMBLY 2025-09-12 PASSED_SENATE 2025-09-11 ENROLLED 2025-09-16 CHAPTERED 2025-10-13 APPROVED 2025-10-13 FILED 2025-10-13 2025 AB CHP CHP 0 Introduced by Assembly Members Bauer-Kahan and Wicks (Coauthors: Assembly Members Kalra, Lowenthal, Ortega, and Papan) (Coauthors: Senators Rubio and Weber Pierson) LEAD_AUTHOR ASSEMBLY Bauer-Kahan LEAD_AUTHOR ASSEMBLY Wicks COAUTHOR ASSEMBLY Kalra COAUTHOR ASSEMBLY Lowenthal COAUTHOR ASSEMBLY Ortega COAUTHOR ASSEMBLY Papan COAUTHOR SENATE Rubio COAUTHOR SENATE Weber Pierson

An act to add

Chapter 25 (commencing with

Section 28000) to Division of the Health and Safety Code, relating to social media platforms. social media platforms Social media: warning labels. Existing law generally regulates social media platforms, including, among other laws, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act that prohibits an operator of an addictive internet-based service or application, including a social media platform, from providing an addictive feed, as defined, to a minor user, except as prescribed.

This bill would enact the Social Media Warning Law that would require a covered platform, as defined, to display a certain black box warning to certain users each day the user initially accesses the social media platform, again after hours of cumulative active use, and thereafter at least once per hour of cumulative active use, as prescribed. This bill would specify that its provisions shall not be interpreted to serve as the basis for a private right of action, as specified. The bill would make its provisions operative on January 1, 2027, and would declare these provisions severable.

MAJORITY NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (

a) Social media provides an important tool for communication and information sharing. Approximately percent of minor teenagers say that they use at least one social media platform, and more than one-third report using social media almost constantly. (

b) As the United States Surgeon General has reported, recent evidence has identified “reasons for concern” about social media usage by children and adolescents. This evidence includes a study concluding that the risk of poor mental health outcomes doubles for children and adolescents who use social media at least three hours per day and research finding that social media usage is linked to a variety of negative health outcomes, including low self-esteem and disordered eating for adolescent girls. (

c) Further, per the Surgeon General’s Social Media and Youth Mental Health advisory, “Excessive and problematic use of social media can harm children and adolescents by disrupting important healthy behaviors. Social media platforms are often designed to maximize user engagement, which has the potential to encourage excessive use and behavioral dysregulation. Push notifications, autoplay, infinite scroll, quantifying and displaying popularity (i.e., ‘likes’), and algorithms that leverage user data to serve content recommendations are some examples of these features that maximize engagement.” (

d) Heavier usage of social media also leads to less healthy sleep patterns and sleep quality, which can in turn exacerbate both physical and mental health problems. (

e) Evidence cited in lawsuits against social media companies for the harms caused against children supports the use of warning labels to advise users of the potential harms of these features. Lawsuits have cited internal documents from companies detailing their deliberate targeting of children in order to bring them on the social media platform and to keep them on the platform. Internal documents have also revealed that social media platforms are aware that their features can impact the health and development of children’s brains and mental health.

They understand that children cannot resist some of these features using their underdeveloped discipline and capitalize on this in order to keep them on their platforms. (

f) Both California and the United States as a whole are facing an ongoing youth mental health crisis, with rates of adolescent suicides, depressive episodes, and feelings of sadness and hopelessness on the rise in recent years. (

g) Governments across the globe have effectively employed black box style warnings to educate the public regarding goods that pose a risk of harm to public health. (

h) For these reasons, it is essential that California act to ensure that users, their families, and the public are warned of the risks of social media use, and requiring the display of a black box style warning is an appropriate mechanism for doing so.

SEC. 2.

Chapter 25 (commencing with

Section 28000) is added to Division of the Health and Safety Code , to read: 25. Social Media Warning Law 28000. This

chapter shall be known as the Social Media Warning Law. 28001. (

a) For purposes of this chapter, “covered platform” has the same meaning as addictive internet-based service or application, as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (

b) of

Section 27000.5. (b) “Covered platform” does not mean an internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application whose primary function is any of the following:

(1) The sale of goods or services.

(2) Cloud storage.

(3) Electronic mail.

(4) Direct messaging, in which communications are viewable only by the sender and an intended recipient, that does not allow public content dissemination, interaction, or access.

(5) Communication internal to an organization.

(6) Internal organizational collaboration services that are not offered to the general public or consumers outside the organization. 28002. (a) (1) (

A) For each calendar day in which a user uses a covered platform, the covered platform shall display, pursuant to subparagraph (B), the black box warning described in subdivision (

b) to the user when the user initially accesses the covered platform. (

B) The black box warning required by this paragraph shall be displayed clearly and continuously for a duration of at least seconds, unless the user affirmatively dismisses the warning by clicking on a conspicuous “X” icon. That black box warning shall be displayed in a manner that occupies at least percent of the screen or window that the user is using to access the covered platform. (

C) A covered platform shall not be required to display the black box warning required by this paragraph to a user if it has reasonably determined that the user is over years of age. (2) (

A) For each calendar day in which a user uses a covered platform, the covered platform shall display, pursuant to subparagraph (B), the black box warning described in subdivision (

b) after three hours of cumulative active use and thereafter at least once per hour of cumulative active use. (

B) The black box warning required by this paragraph shall be displayed clearly and continuously for a duration of at least seconds, without providing the ability to bypass or click through the warning, in a manner that occupies at least percent of the screen or window that the user is using to access the covered platform. (

C) A covered platform shall not be required to display the black box warning required by this paragraph to a user if it has reasonably determined that the user is over years of age. (

b) The black box warning consists of the following text displayed clearly, conspicuously, and legibly in black text on a white background: “The Surgeon General has warned that while social media may have benefits for some young users, social media is associated with significant mental health harms and has not been proven safe for young users.” (

c) The provision of the notice required by this

section or a user affirmatively dismissing the notice do not waive, release, otherwise limit, or serve as a defense to, any claim, including claims premised on failure to warn, other than a claim premised on a violation of this section. (

d) Nothing in this

chapter shall be interpreted to serve as the basis for a private right of action under this

chapter or any other law. (

e) The provisions of this

chapter are severable. If any provision of this

chapter or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application. (

f) This

chapter shall become operative on January 1, 2027.