Children and Social Media Policy

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday it is "long overdue" for the state to restrict minors’ access to social media and confirmed he wants legislation that would bar children under 16 from opening or maintaining accounts, backing a new bipartisan Assembly bill to set a minimum age. Speaking at a Bay Area press conference, Newsom cited his experience as a parent and described a birthday party where seven teens sat silently on their phones as emblematic of a "generation that’s never been more anxious, less free, more stressed." His spokesperson says he supports 'age‑gating rules' inspired by Australia’s approach, and Newsom told Politico he wants state law to restrict access for those under 16, though the current bill text does not yet specify a cutoff age. The measure builds on existing California rules requiring platforms to post terms of service and maintain threat‑reporting and law‑enforcement contact procedures, and comes amid international moves such as France’s under‑15 ban and similar debates in Spain and Australia that Newsom says he discussed at the Munich Security Conference and World Economic Forum. In a weekend social‑media post he framed the effort as targeting online child predators, asserting they will "soon lose access to kids on the platforms they use to groom them" and taking a swipe at President Trump, signaling that youth social‑media limits are becoming a partisan as well as parental flashpoint.