Law / United States / 
California
AB 1705 (2026), pornographic internet websites: uploaded content and user certification
AB 1705 (Ch. 890, Stats. 2026), Cal. Bus. and Prof. Code Sections 22610 to 22618
A specific illegal content rule binding private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- A public prosecutor (civil penalty and injunctive relief); a depicted individual (damages)
- Obligation class
- Governance, Retention
As of .
What it requires
- If you operate a website that permits users to upload, or solicits from users, sexually explicit content for display, exercise ordinary care and reasonable diligence so that no instance of sexually explicit content you display includes a depicted individual, meaning a person shown who did not consent to being depicted, was a minor when it was created, or did not consent to its being uploaded (Business and Professions Code Sections 22610(a), 22612).
- Exercise ordinary care and take reasonable steps so that no sexually explicit content uploaded to your website includes a depicted individual (Section 22614(a)(1)).
- Before a user uploads sexually explicit content, obtain the user's statement, certified under penalty of perjury, that each individual depicted was not a minor when the content was created, consents to the upload and consented to being depicted, together with information sufficient to contact the user, including at least an email address (Section 22614(a)(2)).
- Verify the user's email address before permitting the user to upload sexually explicit content (Section 22614(c)).
- Keep each statement and the user's information in a readily available format for at least seven years after they are submitted (Section 22614(b)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionYes
Penalty structure
A public prosecutor may recover a civil penalty of $25,000 per violation.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 25,000
What this law does
AB 1705 was chaptered on as Chapter 890 of the Statutes of 2026. It adds Chapter 22.6.10, on pornographic internet websites, to Division 8 of the Business and Professions Code. A pornographic internet website is a website that permits users to upload, or solicits from users, sexually explicit content for display on it.
A depicted individual is someone shown in the nude or engaging in sexual acts who did not consent to being depicted, was a minor when the content was created, or did not consent to its being uploaded. An operator of a pornographic internet website must exercise ordinary care and reasonable diligence to ensure that each instance of sexually explicit content displayed on the website does not include a depicted individual.
The operator must also exercise ordinary care and take reasonable steps to ensure that each instance of sexually explicit content uploaded to the website does not include a depicted individual.
Before uploading sexually explicit content, a user must submit to the operator a statement certifying, under penalty of perjury, that each individual depicted was not a minor when the content was created and consented to both the depiction and the upload, together with information sufficient to contact the user, including at a minimum an email address. An operator that does not obtain the statement is presumed to have violated Section 22612.
The operator must retain the statement and information in a readily available format for at least seven years after they are submitted. The operator must verify a user's email address before permitting the user to upload sexually explicit content. Knowingly providing false information in the statement is an infraction punishable by a $1,000 fine.
A depicted individual who prevails in a civil action against the operator may obtain actual damages or statutory damages of not more than $75,000 per violation, whichever is greater, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney's fees and costs. A public prosecutor may bring a civil action to enforce the chapter for a civil penalty of $25,000 per violation, injunctive and other equitable relief, and attorney's fees and costs.
Each full calendar day that sexually explicit content uploaded or displayed in violation remains accessible on the website is a separate violation. The chapter does not apply to sexually explicit content sent through an online dating service's private messaging or direct-communication feature to user-selected recipients where it is not made available to the general public, a publicly viewable feed or public search indexing.
Under Article IV, section 8(c)(1) of the California Constitution, a statute enacted at a regular session goes into effect on the January 1 next following a 90-day period from its enactment, which for this act is .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform or publishes adult content.