The Overview

If your kids use apps, games or websites in California, the companies behind them will have to switch children’s accounts to strong privacy settings by default and take steps to keep kids from being harmed. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Assembly Bill 2246 on Thursday, Sept. 10. It replaces a 2022 kids’ online safety law that tech companies had tied up in court. ​

NetChoice, a tech trade group, sued over the earlier law, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, before it took effect, and federal courts blocked parts of it, according to a state Senate Judiciary Committee analysis. One of the blocked parts required companies to file risk assessments. Instead of amending the old law, lawmakers repealed it and wrote a new one without that requirement.

What the Law Does

The law covers businesses whose online services are likely to be used by anyone under 18. They must estimate users’ ages or treat every user as a child. They also have to set high privacy settings by default, explain their privacy terms in plain language and show a clear signal while a child’s location is being tracked. They must take reasonable steps to protect children from physical or financial harm, severe emotional harm, serious privacy invasions and illegal discrimination. The law says this duty doesn’t require removing other users’ posts or restricting lawful speech.

By default, companies can’t build profiles of children or collect their precise location unless it’s strictly needed. They also can’t use design tricks to push kids into giving up more information. A child can cancel contract terms they agreed to because of a service’s design. The attorney general and local prosecutors can sue for up to $5,000 per child for each careless violation and up to $15,000 per child for each intentional one, double the old law’s penalties, according to a legal analysis of the law. The law takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.

Legislative Status

Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) wrote the bill with five Democratic coauthors. The Assembly passed it 71-1 on May 26 and the Senate passed it 39-0 on Aug. 27. The Assembly agreed to the Senate’s changes 73-1 on Aug. 30, according to the FastDemocracy vote record.

Children Now sponsored the bill, with support from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Common Sense Media. The California Chamber of Commerce, TechNet and the Computer & Communications Industry Association opposed it. They argued it creates a second law that overlaps with the first, and that its ban on default profiling would block personalization that can shield teens from harmful content.

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