CA AB 3080

Title: Age verification: obscene and indecent material.
Author: Juan Alanis

Summary
AB 3080, as amended, Alanis. Age verification: obscene and indecent material. Existing law, beginning January 1, 2025, prohibits a social media platform, as defined, from knowingly facilitating, aiding, or abetting commercial sexual exploitation, as defined. Existing law prohibits a social media platform from being deemed to be in violation of this provision if it demonstrates certain mitigating facts, including that the social media platform instituted and maintained a program of at least biannual audits of its designs, algorithms, practices, affordances, and features to detect designs, algorithms, practices, affordances, or features that have the potential to cause or contribute to violations of that provision, as prescribed. Existing law, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, grants to a consumer various rights with respect to personal information, as defined, that is collected by a business, as defined, including the right to request that a business delete personal information about the consumer that the business has collected from the consumer.This bill would require a covered platform, as defined, that publishes or distributes material harmful to minors, as defined, to perform reasonable age verification methods, as defined, to verify the age of each individual attempting to access the material and to prevent access by minors to the material. The bill would prohibit a covered platform, or any third party, that performs age verification pursuant to these provisions from retaining any identifying information of the individual after access has been granted to the material, general purpose unless otherwise required by law. The bill would state that its provisions do not apply to, among other things, an internet service provider, a general purpose search engine, or a cloud service provider. This bill would state that, except as provided, any attempted waiver or estoppel of a person’s right to bring a civil action under these provisions is void as unlawful and against public policy, as specified, and would provide that any contract, agreement, or other arrangement made or entered in violation of these provisions is contrary to law and public policy, void, and unenforceable. The bill would authorize a parent or legal guardian of a minor to bring a civil action, as specified, against any covered platform for violating these provisions with respect to the minor. The bill would also authorize any individual, after access to the material harmful to minors has been granted to the individual, to bring a civil action, as specified, against a covered platform for a violation of the prohibition against retaining any identifying information of the individual.This bill would state that its provisions are severable.

Status
Re-referred to Com. on P. & C.P.

Bill Documents
CA AB 3080 - 03/21/24 - Amended Assembly
03/21/24 - CA AB 3080 (03/21/24 - Amended Assembly)