California's Age Verification Bill For App Stores And Operating Systems Takes Another Step Forward

A California measure that would require operating strategy and app shop providers to verify users' ages earlier they tin download apps has cleared nan Assembly 58-0, and will now move connected to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Politico reports. The Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, does not require photograph recognition for verification, but puts nan onus connected nan platforms to supply devices for parents to bespeak nan user's property during a device's setup, and usage this accusation steer kids toward age-appropriate contented and surface time.

It comes aft Utah and Texas some adopted app shop property verification laws earlier this twelvemonth that person been criticized arsenic posing imaginable privateness risks, and faced guidance from nan likes of Google and Apple. The California measure has been received much positively by Big Tech, pinch Google, Meta and others putting retired statements successful support of it successful nan leadup to a Senate ballot connected Friday. Kareem Ghanem, Google's Senior Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy, called nan measure "one of nan astir thoughtful approaches we’ve seen frankincense acold to nan challenges of keeping kids safe, recognizing that it’s a shared work crossed nan ecosystem.” Gov. Newsom now has until October 13 to motion aliases veto nan bill, according to Politico.