Age Verification Providers Criticize Calif. Bill on Age Assurance Signals
The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) raised concerns Tuesday with a California bill that would require manufacturers to transmit signals about users’ ages.
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Under AB-1043 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D), manufacturers would be obligated to develop a way to require device owners to enter the user’s birthdate or age, so that a digital signal about the user’s age bracket could be sent to app developers through an application programming interface (see 2503310052).
“While we welcome any effort to protect children from harm online, this Bill does not require any degree of age assurance and will only affect apps,” AVPA Executive Director Iain Corby wrote in an email. “We know that not all parents apply such measures, and kids find ways around them. To be effective, controls need to be placed as close to the harm as possible, and must apply independent assurance of the user’s age.”
Google and Apple recently pitched age-verification ideas involving digital signals via an API (see 2503130035). The companies didn’t comment Tuesday on AB-1043.
As app store owners, Google and Apple would bear responsibility for determining age under a new Utah law and similar measures in other states (see 2503270047). The app-store model’s supporters include Meta, which, as a social media company, is required to verify age under several bills and laws in other states (see 2502270015).
AB-1043 is also opposed by the Digital Childhood Alliance, a spokesperson said Monday. The group lobbies for app-store age-verification legislation and includes the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, Heritage Foundation and a variety of other organizations. The Alliance previously condemned Google’s proposal as a “feckless alternative” to the Utah App Store Accountability Act (see 2503170049).