OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta this week joined a bipartisan coalition of 18 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in Netchoice v. Weiser, supporting Colorado's law requiring social media platforms to provide fact-based notices about their products — products that for many users are as addictive as they are pervasive. Excessive social media use has become a self-feeding phenomenon, culminating in hours of use per day for children, increasing youth susceptibility to depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide. In the brief, filed in the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the attorneys general argue that the states have a compelling interest in protecting children from harmful addictions to products designed to maximize user engagement.

“States across the country must act urgently to protect children and youth from the addictive nature of social media and the harm that comes from excessive use. The average teenager spends nearly five hours per day on social media because social media products are designed like slot machines — dopamine dispensers engineered for endless scrolling,” said Attorney General Bonta. “That is why California has passed legislation to protect children from harms associated with excessive social media use and why we joined a bipartisan coalition in supporting our sister state of Colorado in its attempt to protect children from social media companies that look at kids and see dollar signs." 

Many young people and children use social media in excess. Excessive time spent online is associated with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, susceptibility to addiction, and interference with daily life — including learning. Every additional hour that young people spend online is associated with an increased severity in symptoms of depression. Increasing evidence shows that these companies are aware of the adverse mental health consequences imposed on underage users, yet they have chosen to dig in deeper and deploy practices that keep kids' eyes glued to screens.

California’s own investigations and lawsuits against Meta and TikTok have helped paint a full picture of the scope and intentionality of this public health crisis. California’s lawsuits against Meta and TikTok both claim that the social media giants designed their platforms to addict young people so they would spend longer on the platforms, to the detriment of their mental and physical health. For example, TikTok designed its platform to include features it knew were uniquely psychologically and physically harmful to young users by keeping them compulsively returning and staying longer. Both lawsuits are ongoing.

Harms like these are why many states, like California and Colorado, have passed their own laws designed to protect children from the damage caused by social media. Colorado enacted Section 4 of House Bill 24 -113 to warn minors about excessive social media use. Section 4 requires social media platforms to either inform minor users about how social media use impacts the developing brain or to give regular notice to minor users about the length of time they’re spending on the platform and their use during normal sleeping hours. Before Section 4 could go into effect, NetChoice, a trade association representing the very social media companies that work to keep kids' eyes glued to screens, challenged the law in court and a district court temporarily blocked the law. In today’s brief, the attorneys general ask the Court of Appeals to reverse the district court’s stay and let this law protecting children from social media’s harms go into effect.

In 2025, California enacted AB 56, which requires social media companies to periodically display a warning label on their platforms when used by children and teens. While social media may have benefits for some young users, California's warning label advises that social media is associated with significant mental health harms and has not been proven safe for young users. 

In filing the amicus brief, Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Utah, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.