California Advances Stronger Children's Online Safety Bill

California lawmakers passed a distinctive bill designed to improve the online safety and privacy of children in the absence of federal law. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act will require platforms including Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, along with other businesses that offer “an online service, product or feature likely to be accessed by children,” to install guardrails for users under 18. This means businesses are required to implement higher privacy settings for minors and prohibit the collection of location data of those users. The current federal law, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), created some privacy protections to children under the age of 13. However, loopholes within the law led to advertisers unknowingly collecting children’s data. Meanwhile, the federal privacy bill, the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, faces strong lobbying from Big Tech and state lawmakers and may not see any movement for a while, sources previously told Adweek. “Today’s action … sends an important signal about the need to make children’s online health and safety a greater priority for lawmakers and for our tech companies, particularly when it comes to websites that are accessed by young users,” children’s advocacy organization Common Sense said in a statement. Any violations under California’s children’s privacy bill that are deemed “negligent” of the rules will empower the state's attorney general to fine companies $2,500 per child affected, and $7,500 for intentional violations. Top line California’s new privacy bill restricts companies from collecting any minor’s data beyond what is absolutely necessary or using children’s personal information in any way that is “materially detrimental to the physical health, mental health or well-being of a child.” It also requires companies to analyze their algorithms and products to see how they may affect young users and determine whether they are designed to be addictive or could cause additional harm to children. Companies would also be required to default users under 18 to the strongest privacy settings. This includes disabling features that profile children using their previous behavior, browsing history or assumptions of their similarity to other children, to offer detrimental material, per the bill. Additionally, a new working group dedicated to implementing the bill requirements will be formed whose members will be appointed by the governor and state agencies. Between the lines California’s Age-Appropriate bill emulates the U.K.’s Age-Appropriate Design Code, which went into effect in 2021. The new bill comes at a time when social media platforms have faced severe repercussions for their impact on youngsters. The bill comes after Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal documents in 2021 that showed the dire mental health impact of Instagram on teen users, which escalated advocacy groups' push for stronger privacy protections for young users. Meanwhile many have called for the reworking and updating of COPPA, which the FTC is currently looking into as a part of its latest privacy crackdown. In a separate attempt, California lawmakers failed to advance a measure to address the online safety of children that allowed companies to be sued for designing features that keep children addicted to the app. Bottom line The AB 227 bill now awaits the signature of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. If signed, the law would go into effect on July 1, 2024, giving platforms nearly two years to comply. Sephora to pay $1.2 Million for Violating California’s Privacy Law