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California bills · 2025-2026 Regular Session

California AB 1043

Age verification signals: software applications and online services.

  1. Introduced
  2. In committee
  3. Passed House
  4. Passed Senate
  5. To Governor
  6. Became law

Sponsors

Cosponsors (10)

Summary

Official abstract published by the California legislature· summary

Existing law generally provides protections for minors on the internet, including the California Age-Appropriate 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 user's 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 real-time 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.

Text versions

Roll-call votes

State vote data last updated Oct 15, 2026, 8:04 PM.

DateVoteResultYour legislators
Sep 13, 2025
House		AB 1043 WICKS Concurrence in Senate AmendmentspassSet your home in California to see
Sep 12, 2025
Senate		3rd Reading AB1043 Wicks et al. By UmbergpassSet your home in California to see
Aug 29, 2025
Senate		Do passpassSet your home in California to see
Aug 18, 2025
Senate		Placed on suspense filepassSet your home in California to see
Jul 15, 2025
Senate		Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations]passSet your home in California to see
Jun 3, 2025
House		AB 1043 Wicks Assembly Third ReadingpassSet your home in California to see
May 23, 2025
House		Do pass as amended.passSet your home in California to see
Apr 29, 2025
House		Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations]passSet your home in California to see
Apr 22, 2025
House		Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary]passSet your home in California to see

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