Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Age Assurance Ab1043 topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Bill to establish device-based age signals to help protect children considered by committee
Summary
AB 1043 would require manufacturers to provide a privacy-protective age-range signal from devices to app developers on request to establish a knowledge standard enabling age-targeted protections for children; supporters said amendments narrowed scope while industry raised practical concerns.
Assemblymember Wicks presented AB 1043 (referred to in the transcript as AB 10 43) to create a statutory age-assurance framework so device manufacturers or operating systems can provide a privacy-protective age range signal to app developers upon request. The stated goal is to enable platforms and regulators to apply child-safety rules where the platform has knowledge of a user's age.
Supporters, including Children Now and other child-safety advocates, said the measure would help close a loophole where platforms claim they cannot target protections without knowing user age. Nicole Rocha of Children Now said age signals would "dramatically improve the digital world for California's kids" and said industry parental controls do not substitute for statutory protections. The author accepted committee amendments that removed parental-consent overrides and narrowed the signal mechanism to app developers (websites were removed from the current bill language) to address privacy and technical concerns.
Opponents raised questions about feasibility and the knowledge standard. Chamber of Progress and other industry groups said remaining questions include how a device-generated signal would interact with other age indicators and whether such an attestation could be verifiable without collecting additional data. The bill was described as substantially improved by some opponents following committee amendments, but several groups said additional negotiation is needed.
The committee did not record a final vote in the transcript; the author asked for an "I vote" and said she would continue discussions with stakeholders and device makers, including to clarify interactions where device manufacturers differ from operating system vendors.
