California law now says that social media features such as infinite scroll and autoplay, as well as access to artificial intelligence chatbots, must be age-limited according to a set of 13 laws recently signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom. One bill, AB 1709, is explicitly targeted at children and teens. “It will require social media companies to either stop offering ‘addictive’ tools like infinite scroll and autoplay to users under 16 or to keep those users off their platforms entirely,” reports Cal Matters. 

Already there is unsettled debate. Newsom’s office describes the bills as “Creating the strongest companion chatbot regulations in the nation… Banning addictive features on social media platforms… Protecting kids from exploitation and abuse… [and the] Strongest privacy protections for kids.” All worthy goals. 

But the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) says, “This well-intentioned, but deeply flawed piece of legislation, cuts young people off from essential information and experiences, particularly harming vulnerable youth and marginalized groups who often find safety in supportive online communities they can’t access offline.” Also worthy. 

Hard to say which assessment of the laws is correct, but if California manages to stop autoplay and/or the infamous infinite scroll — if only for children and teens — this will be a very good outcome. 

That’s because the infinite scroll hijacks the dopamine rush of the ancient brain and its pursuit of rewards. The brain needs increasingly more of the addictive substance or behavior just to feel “normal.” This feature contributes to compulsive use and potentially addictive scrolling.

The autoplay feature isn’t any better. The continuous play skips over the moment where a person must actively choose whether or not to continue. “For adults with fully developed executive function, this is already a significant challenge. For children, it’s a different category of problem altogether,” writes psychologist Octavio Ortega Esteban.

Aza Raskin, the engineer responsible for creating the infinite scroll in 2006, later said he had no idea how addictive the feature would be and stated his regret at designing it. He told the BCC in 2018 that “Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting.” Note that Raskin’s observation was before the mass adoption of TikTok and its combination of auto-play infinity scroll, which the European Union says must be disabled due to its addictive properties, per the EU’s new Digital Services Act.

It is interesting that the new California laws are focused on children. Perhaps focusing on children’s health and safety is more palatable for political change. Or perhaps safeguards for children make any change to digital products and our relationship to them possible. There are too many entrenched interests and adults accepting of social media’s status quo.

Children establish lifelong patterns of stress response early. If scrolling and passive consumption are established as the default displacement activity, it is easy to see how that behavior would continue into adulthood. For some, it could lead to compulsive use or even addiction. 

If California can stop the infinite scroll, so might the nation. 

Written by Katie McCaskey. First published September 18, 2026.

Sources:

“California enacts laws restricting chatbots and banning teens from ‘addictive’ social media,” Cal Matters, September 10, 2026.

“EFF to Governor Newsom: Veto California’s AB 1709,” Electronic Freedom Foundation, August 31, 2026.

“He Created Your Phone’s Most Addictive Feature. Now He Wants to Build a Rosetta Stone for Animal Language,” GQ, June 30, 2021.

“EU says TikTok must disable ‘addictive’ features like infinite scroll, fix its recommendation engine,” TechCrunch, February 6, 2026.

“Why our brains are wired for addiction: What the science says,” Stanford Medicine, August 5, 2025.

“YouTube Autoplay and the Psychology of Passive Consumption in Kids,” Octavio Ortega Esteban, July 22, 2026.

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