California AB1043

California AB1043 2025-2026 AB 1043 Wicks Age verification signals software applications and online services Existing law generally provides protections for minors on the internet including the California AgeAppropriate Design Code Act that among other things requires a business that provides an online service product or feature likely to be accessed by children to do certain things including estimate the age of child users with a reasonable level of certainty appropriate to the risks that arise from the data management practices of the business or apply the privacy and data protections afforded to children to all consumers and prohibits an online service product or feature from among other things using dark patterns to lead or encourage children to provide personal information beyond what is reasonably expected to provide that online service product or feature or to forego privacy protections This bill beginning January 1 2027 would require among other things related to age verification with respect to software applications an operating system provider as defined to provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder as defined to indicate the birth date age or both of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the users age bracket to applications available in a covered application store and to provide a developer as defined who has requested a signal with respect to a particular user with a digital signal via a reasonably consistent realtime application programming interface regarding whether a user is in any of several age brackets as prescribed The bill would require a developer to request a signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched This bill would prohibit an operating system provider or a covered application store from using data collected from a third party in an anticompetitive manner as specified This bill would punish noncompliance with a civil penalty to be enforced by the Attorney General as prescribed This bill would declare its provisions to be severable