Calif. Bill Tasks Manufacturers With Sending Age-Verification Signals

The proposed Digital Age Assurance Act “would require … a covered manufacturer to provide an accessible interface for requiring device owners 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,” says a summary. And it “would require the covered manufacturer to provide developers with a digital signal via a real-time application programming interface regarding whether a user is in any of several age brackets.”

In turn, developers with “actual knowledge that a user is a child via receipt of a signal regarding a user’s age” would have to “provide readily available features for parents to support a child user with respect to the child user’s use of the service and as appropriate given the risks that arise from use of the application.”

AB-1043 defines “covered manufacturer” as “a person who is a manufacturer of a device, an operating system for a device, or a covered application store.” The bill would authorize the California attorney general to enforce the measure with a maximum civil penalty of $2,500 “per affected child for each negligent violation” or $7,500 “per affected child for each intentional violation.”

“The Digital Age Assurance Act is a crucial step in ensuring kids can explore the digital world more safely -- and a critical step needed for us to require social media and other online companies to implement higher consumer safety standards for products accessed by kids,” Wicks said last week.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Umberg (D) said in the same news release that he is supporting Wicks “to ensure that we hold companies accountable for their actions and to a higher standard in terms of the mental and emotional health of California’s children.” The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children also supported AB-1043.