Child Product Safety

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What You Need to Know

Key Takeaway #1 California’s new AI chatbot law — “Adam’s Law” (SB 1119) — requires companion chatbot operators to conduct mandatory independent child safety audits and annual risk assessments, implement crisis protocols for queries involving self-harm, and notify parents when children disable safety settings. Non-compliance exposes businesses to significant civil liability.

Key Takeaway #2 Assembly Bill 1709 prohibits social media platforms from offering addictive features to users under 16, such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmically personalized feeds. Social media companies found to have negligently harmed children through their platforms face civil penalties of up to $1 million per child under Assembly Bill 2.

Key Takeaway #3 SB 867 prohibits companies for four years from selling or manufacturing toys for children under 16 that include chatbots, further restricting the deployment of AI companionship features in consumer products directed at minors.

Continue Reading California Signs Nation-Leading AI Chatbot and Social Media Laws: What Businesses Need to Know

A new lawsuit alleging that major gaming platforms deliberately use psychological techniques to addict minors reflects a broader litigation trend in video games and mirrors social media addiction cases already yielding significant jury verdicts. Click here to continue reading the full version of this alert.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026–2030, setting out the agency’s enforcement priorities and operational objectives for the next five years under Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson. The plan reaffirms the FTC’s commitment to vigorously enforcing the nation’s antitrust and consumer protection laws “without fear or favor.” Critically for…

On Tuesday, March 24, 2026, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for failing to protect kids from child exploitation on its platforms and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages for consumer-protection violations. The next day, a California jury found Meta and YouTube liable for platform features that cause children to become…

The White House’s National AI Policy Framework sets out seven priorities for Congress to codify into federal law, including the preemption of state AI regulations in favor of a unified national standard; age-assurance requirements and stronger parental controls to protect children; deference to the courts on intellectual property questions arising from AI training on copyrighted…

On February 12, 2026, a bipartisan group of legislators in Maryland proposed the Maryland Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act. This proposed legislation would amend the Maryland Consumer Protection Act to establish a sweeping regulatory framework for AI-enabled toys sold in the state, covering any device that uses machine learning, conversational AI, behavioral modeling, or similar computational processes and is marketed to or primarily used by children. This proposed legislation adds to a growing trend of increasing efforts, at both the federal and state levels, to regulate the use of AI in products and services used by children.  

Continue Reading Maryland’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act: State-Level Regulation Fills the Federal Void on AI in Children’s Products