CA AB 1043

Title: Age verification signals: software applications and online services.
Author: Thomas J. Umberg

Summary
AB 1043, as amended, Wicks. Age verification signals: software applications and online services. Existing law generally provides protections for minors on the internet, including the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act that, among other things, requires a business that provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children to do certain things, including estimate the age of child users with a reasonable level of certainty appropriate to the risks that arise from the data management practices of the business or apply the privacy and data protections afforded to children to all consumers and prohibits an online service, product, or feature from, among other things, using dark patterns to lead or encourage children to provide personal information beyond what is reasonably expected to provide that online service, product, or feature or to forego privacy protections.This bill would require, among other things related to age verification on the internet, a covered manufacturer to provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder, as defined, to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the sole purpose of providing a signal regarding the user’s age bracket to applications available in a covered application store and would require the covered manufacturer to provide developers, as defined, with a digital signal via a real-time application programming interface regarding whether a user is in any of several age brackets, as prescribed. The bill would define “covered manufacturer” to mean a person who is a manufacturer of a device, an operating system for a device, or a covered application store. The bill would require a developer with actual knowledge of a user’s age to connect account holders with any existing tools to support a user with respect to the user’s use of the service and as appropriate given the risks that arise from use of the application.This bill would punish noncompliance with a civil penalty to be enforced by the Attorney General, as prescribed.This bill would declare its provisions to be severable.

Status
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

Bill Documents
CA AB 1043 - 05/23/25 - Amended Assembly
05/23/25 - CA AB 1043 (05/23/25 - Amended Assembly)