Standard

Adam's Law

California law regulating chatbots that interact with minors, requiring safety design standards, audits, and allowing lawsuits and penalties for violations.

Known aliases

Adams Law
California Adam's Law
Chapter 190, Statutes of 2026

Current stories

productConfirmed20 publishers

Hour-long suicide chats on ChatGPT for Teens rarely triggered parent alerts, Common Sense Media found

Common Sense Media rated ChatGPT for Teens an "Unacceptable Risk" after 4,000-plus test prompts showed long suicide and self-harm chats rarely alerted parents. OpenAI disputes when the tests ran, but the report has already graded the product against California's Adam's Law, which takes effect in July 2027.

Publishers:bbc.co.uk bbc.com bloomberg.com businesstoday.in cnet.com cryptopolitan.com digitaltrends.com economictimes.indiatimes.com engadget.com fastcompany.com futurism.com gizmodo.com latimes.com mashable.com mezha.net pcmag.com qz.com techcrunch.com techrepublic.com the-decoder.com theneuron.ai thenextweb.com theverge.com

Perspective Coverage

23 publishers

Builder: Builder 27%
Operator: Operator 55%
Investor: Investor 18%

Reality

Evidence60
Adoption55
Hype gap+15
Incentives70
Confidence62

investConfirmed3 publishers

California prices a knowing under-16 feed violation at $50,000 per minor from January 2027

California's under-16 feed ban starts on January 1, 2027, and the cheapest way to comply is an age signal built from a birth date the user typed at device setup. The EFF expects platforms to verify every adult instead.

Publishers:livemint.com nbcnews.com techtimes.com

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers

Builder: Builder 25%
Operator: Operator 42%
Investor: Investor 33%

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption: Not scored
Hype gap+30
Incentives55
Confidence50

investOne report1 publisher

Anthropic negotiated out of Adam's Law by refusing users under 18

California now holds chatbot companies liable for failing to take reasonable measures against harmful outputs. OpenAI, Google, Meta and Amazon all sat in the negotiations that wrote the standard.

Publishers:fortune.com

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption: Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives70
Confidence55

investOne report1 publisher

Newsom's 13-bill package multiplies platform liability by the number of children harmed

California's new 13-bill minors package allows damages of up to $1 million for each child a large social platform is found to have harmed. Matching Meta's $18 billion settlement would take 18,000 of them.

Publishers:en.sedaily.com

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption: Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives60
Confidence45

scienceOne report1 publisher

California's Adam's Law codifies flattery and simulated romance as prohibited chatbot conduct

California's new law regulates how a chatbot behaves toward a child, listing the manipulation patterns operators must design out. The statute grades some of those patterns without quantifying them, and how an auditor measures them is the open question.

Publishers:forkast.news

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption: Not scored
Hype gap+25
Incentives45
Confidence48