When going out for a drink at a bar, some form of identification is required for bartenders to serve patrons. Usually, we present a driver’s license or a passport to a bouncer or bartender. The internet will now act like a bar, requiring visitors to confirm their age before accessing any age-sensitive content.
This month, the California state legislature passed the “Digital Age Assurance Act,” a bill aimed at combating underage viewership of illicit content, pending the governor’s approval. This bill introduces standardized age verification signals for software applications and online services. The bill was introduced by state Assembly member, Buffy Wicks, who has a history of working on legislation toward protecting minors on the internet. In 2022, he led the passage of the country’s first age-appropriate design code law, which requires higher privacy and design protections for minors. That law is currently being challenged in court by the tech industry.
This new law follows similar laws recently passed in Utah and Texas, which impose age verification requirements for app store operators. For minors, this will require a parent/guardian over the age of 18 to set up for them. To deter parents from ignoring this law, the law will carry a $7500 fee for any parent found to intentionally violate this law, and $2500 for any negligent violation. Those laws will go into effect next January for Texas and in June 2026 for Utah.
The difference in California is the scope of the law in the other states only covers app-store purchases. This new California law covers everything from computers to other general-purpose computing devices. This can be used in any case of age-restricting material. This could be anything from a YouTube video with an age restriction setting, playing a song on a streaming service, or trying to access a blog discussing sensitive material.
Tech companies will have to build an account setup system for any computer, tablet, or phone that will ask for the age of the user. The operating system will act as a signal sender to any developers who have an age restriction on any material over the internet. The developers are then considered to have knowledge of their users’ age range and are expected to no longer ignore age restriction laws.
Speaking with the manager of a bar in Livermore, Danny Sogar does not expect much of a change in person, but is unsure about navigating the digital license system. “I think it’ll streamline everything, but I also don’t know how easily manipulated these signal IDs can be because there’s plenty of good hackers out there, right?”
Steve Gibson from the podcast “Security Now!”, a podcast on internet security, has concerns about the privacy of those visiting a website that has age restrictions. “Any age verification system must be very tightly bound to them, to their real-world physical identity. This is another way in which it differs from any fully anonymous Internet authentication system.” A website that was visited anonymously will now be able to connect that profile to your identity when returning to the site. This eliminates any chance for privacy with how the current law is structured, anyone under 18 will be identified when going to any website that has an age restriction.
With unanimous approval from the state legislature and the backing of major tech companies like Google, Meta, and OpenAI, the bill was signed by Gavin Newsom on 10-13-25. The one notable organization against the bill was the Motion Picture Association, a union representing major film studios. The concern with the film industry is for families with shared streaming accounts, how to separate the children’s accounts from adults, without allowing access to children.
The passing of this law hopes to deter children from interacting with content that might not be appropriate for them. It also brings a world with no anonymity closer to reality, where you might need to show ID before playing a song by your favorite artist.
