CA Digital Age Assurance Act
California Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043, as amended by AB 1856)
Requires operating system providers to collect a birth date or age at device setup and to pass a real-time age-bracket signal to application stores and developers through an API, and requires developers to request that signal and treat it as the primary indicator of a user's age. Enforcement lies with the Attorney General alone.
Jurisdiction
California
Enacted
Oct 13, 2025
Effective
Jan 1, 2027
Enforcement
California Attorney General only
AB 1043 was approved by the Governor on October 13, 2025 and chaptered as Chapter 675, Statutes of 2025, adding Civil Code Title 1.81.9 (Sections 1798.500 to 1798.505). The title becomes operative January 1, 2027. Amended before it takes effect by AB 1856, approved September 10, 2026 and chaptered as Chapter 184, Statutes of 2026, which removes the definition limiting user to a child who is the primary device user so that the duties attach to any primary user, requires operating system providers to supply age-bracket signals to application stores as well as developers, and prohibits requesting a signal without authorisation.
California Legislative Information: AB 1043, Chapter 675, Statutes of 2025 (chaptered text)Why It Matters
Moves age assurance from the individual service to the operating system layer, which means a developer complying with a separate age-gating obligation can rely on a platform-supplied signal instead of collecting identity documents. It is the infrastructure that several other California child safety statutes depend on for age determination, and it applies to operating system providers and application stores rather than only to the services children use.
Recent Developments
Amended by AB 1856 (Chapter 184, Statutes of 2026) on September 10, 2026, before the original act had taken effect. The amendment widens the duties from children who are the primary device user to any primary user, adds application stores as recipients of the signal, and bars unauthorised signal requests. The signal this act creates is the age determination mechanism that AB 1709 (Chapter 183) relies on for its under-16 addictive feature prohibition, so the two take effect together on January 1, 2027.
At a Glance
Applies to
Harms addressed
Who Must Comply
- Operating system providers supplying devices used in California
- Covered application stores
- Application developers distributing to California users
Safety Provisions
- Operating system providers must ask the account holder to indicate the user's birth date or age during device setup
- Operating system providers must send a digital age-bracket signal via a reasonably consistent real-time application programming interface
- Covered application stores must request signals from operating system providers and distribute them to developers on request
- Developers must request the signal at download or launch and use it as the primary indicator of the user's age
- Restrictions on onward sharing of signal data, and a prohibition on requesting a signal without authorisation
- Accessible interface required for accounts that predate the operative date
Compliance & Enforcement
Key Dates
Jan 1, 2027
Title becomes operative: operating system providers must ask the account holder to indicate the user's birth date or age at device setup and supply a real-time age-bracket signal through a reasonably consistent API; covered application stores must request and pass on signals; developers must request signals and use them as the primary age indicator
Jul 1, 2027
Operating system providers must have provided the accessible interface for accounts established before January 1, 2027, and developers must have requested signals for applications previously downloaded and updated on or after January 1, 2026
Penalties
$8K; $8K/violation
View on map
California
Focus Areas
Cite This
APA
California. (2025). California Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043, as amended by AB 1856).
Related Regulations
CA AB 1709
Prohibits a covered platform from providing an addictive feature to a user under 16 years of age and requires reasonable measures to ensure that under-16 users are not provided one. Establishes the e-Safety Advisory Commission within the Department of Justice as an independent advisory body reporting annually to the Legislature and the Governor, and authorises the Attorney General to adopt regulations expanding the definition of covered platform.
CA AB 2
Requires a social media platform with more than $100 million in annual gross revenues to exercise ordinary care or skill in its interactions with minors, and makes it liable in damages for injury to a child caused by a failure to do so. Provides statutory damages of $5,000 per violation capped at $1 million per child, or treble actual damages, whichever is greater, and voids any waiver of the liability. Repealed January 1, 2035.
IL HB 5511
Requires covered operators of online platforms to apply protective default settings to users they know to be minors, including limits on algorithmic feeds, a 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. notification curfew and no autoplay by default on addictive social media platforms, and establishes a device-level age-bracket signal that Internet-enabled device manufacturers must provide and operators must request. Announced by the Governor as the Children's Social Media Safety Act, the title of the bill as introduced. Enforced by the Attorney General.
IA SF 2417
Establishes requirements and guidelines for conversational AI services including AI disclosure to minors, prohibition on sexually explicit content for minors, prevention of deceptive human-like interactions, and parental controls for children under 13.
CO HB 1263
Imposes obligations on conversational AI service operators including minor-user protections, suicide and self-harm protocols, prohibition on emotional dependence and engagement gamification, and annual safeguard reporting.
GA AI Chatbot Child Safety
Adds O.C.G.A. section 39-5-6, requiring operators of AI companion chatbots to disclose the chatbot is not a natural person, to adopt a protocol for detecting and responding to expressions of severe harm, to restrict specified manipulative and sexualised interactions with minors, and to perform age assurance before providing access to sexually explicit synthetic content.
Last updated September 13, 2026. Verify against primary sources before relying on this information.