1714.48.
(a) A social media platform shall not use a design, algorithm, or feature that the platform knows, or which by the exercise of reasonable care should have known, causes child users to do any of the following:(1) Purchase a controlled substance.
(2) Inflict harm on themselves or others.
(3) Develop an eating disorder.
(4) Commit suicide.
(5) Experience addiction to the social media platform.
(6) Purchase or transfer a firearm that would violate Part 6 (commencing with Section 16000) of the Penal Code.
(b) A social media platform is not in violation of this section if it demonstrates it did both of the following:
(1) The social media platform instituted and maintained a program of at least quarterly audits of its designs, algorithms, and features that have the potential to cause violations of subdivision (a).
(2) The social media platform corrected, within 30 days of the completion of an audit described in paragraph (1), any design, algorithm, or feature discovered by the audit to present more than a de minimis risk of violating subdivision (a).
(c) A social media platform that has knowingly and willfully violated this section shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) per violation, an injunction, and an award of litigation costs and attorney’s fees in an action brought only by any of the following:
(1) The Attorney General.
(2) A district attorney.
(3) A city attorney of a city having a population in excess of 750,000.
(4) A county counsel of any county within which a city has a population in excess of 750,000.
(5) With the consent of the district attorney, a city prosecutor in a city that has a full-time city prosecutor.
(d) This section shall not be construed to impose liability on a social media platform for any of the following:
(1) Content that is generated by a user of the service or uploaded to or shared on the service by a user of the service.
(2) Displaying content that is created entirely by third parties.
(3) Information or content for which the social media platform was not, in whole or in part, responsible for creating or developing.
(4) Conduct by a social media platform involving child users that would otherwise be protected by Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code.
(5) Conduct protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Section 2 of Article I of the California Constitution.
(e) An action to enforce a cause of action pursuant to this section shall be commenced within four years after the cause of action accrued.
(f) For purposes of this section:
(1) “Addiction” means a use of one or more social media platforms that does both of the following:
(A) Indicates preoccupation or obsession with, or withdrawal or difficulty to cease or reduce use of, a social media platform despite the user’s desire to cease or reduce that use.
(B) Causes physical, mental, emotional, developmental, or material harms to the user.
(2) “Audit” means a good faith, written, systemic review or appraisal by a social media platform that provides reasonable assurance of monitoring compliance with this section that meets both of the following criteria:
(A) The review or appraisal describes and analyzes each of the social media platform’s current and forthcoming designs, algorithms, and features that have the potential to cause a violation described in subdivision (a).
(B) The review of appraisal includes any plans to change designs, algorithms, and features that pose more than a de minimis risk of violating subdivision (a).
(3) “Child user” means a person who uses a social media platform and is younger than 16 years of age.
(4) (A) “Content” means statements or comments made by users and media that are created, posted, shared, or otherwise interacted with by users on an internet-based service or application.
(B) “Content” does not include media put on a service or application exclusively for the purpose of cloud storage, transmitting files, or file collaboration.
(5) “Controlled substance” has the same meaning as defined in Section 11007 of the Health and Safety Code.
(6) “Eating disorder” means a behavioral condition characterized by a severe and persistent disturbance in eating behaviors and associated distressing thoughts and emotions, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.
(7) “Social media platform” has the same meaning as defined in Section 22675 of the Business and Professions Code.
(g) This section does not apply to a social media platform that is controlled by a business entity that generated less than one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in gross revenue during the preceding calendar year.
(h) This section shall not negate or limit a cause of action under common law or any other statute, including any cause of action that may have existed or exists against a social media platform under the law as it existed before January 1, 2024.