US state of California has passed a new law that allows it to adopt a broad new approach to protecting children online.
State Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill which promises to transform how many social networks, games and other services treat minors.
Despite opposition from the tech industry, the California State Legislature unanimously approved the bill at the end of August.
This makes California the first state in the US to require online services likely to be used by youngsters to install a wide-range of safeguards for users under 18.
Among other things, the measure will require sites and apps to curb the risks that certain popular features — like allowing strangers to message one another — may pose to younger users. It will also require online services to turn on the highest privacy settings by default for children.
The California legislation will require online services likely to be used by children to protect their privacy and safety by design and default. It also specifically prohibits online services from profiling children, nudging children to provide personal information or tracking their precise locations.
Called the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, the new legislation compels online services to take a proactive approach to safety — by designing their products and features from the outset with the “best interests” of young users in mind.
The California measure could apply to a wide range of popular digital products that people under 18 are likely to use: social networks, game platforms, connected toys, voice assistants and digital learning tools for schools. It could also affect children far beyond the state, prompting some services to introduce changes nationwide, rather than treat minors in California differently.
Opposition from Industry players
Civil liberties experts argued that the measure could also have deleterious consequences for adults. In compelling sites to treat children differently, they warned, popular services for general audiences might set up invasive age-verification systems requiring all users to provide sensitive personal details to companies.
But children’s groups said the legislation was needed to protect young users from automated systems that could expose them to harmful content, put them in contact with adult strangers or prod them into staying online for hours on end.
Fines for child data abuse
Earlier this month, regulators in Ireland issued a fine of about $405 million to Meta, the social media giant formerly known as Facebook, for violating European data protection rules in its treatment of children’s data on Instagram. Meta has said it disagreed with the Irish regulators’ charges and planned to appeal the decision.
Again, Meta and Google have recently been fined a combined US$72 million for user data breaches in South Korea. There have been many other such fines on Meta and other tech giants which clearly shows it is stock in trade to breach users’ private data when they feel like it.
