Law / United States / 
California
AB 1709 (2026), minimum age for addictive social media featuresNew, enacted
A social media and minors rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Applies to internet websites, online services or applications that offer an addictive feed as a significant part of the service, excluding commercial transaction sites and cloud storage services.
- Do not let users under 16 access addictive feeds, autoplay and similar engagement features, using age determinations from the Digital Age Assurance Act or Health and Safety Code Section 27001.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalties
Up to $50,000 per affected minor for a knowing violation and up to $25,000 for a negligent violation.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
California Attorney General or local public prosecutors
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- When is a covered platform 'unable to verify the age of the user' pursuant to the Digital Age Assurance Act under Business and Professions Code section 22684(a)(1), so that it must instead rely on the age determination under section 27001 of the Health and Safety Code?
- How does a covered platform 'rely on the age determination' made under Health and Safety Code section 27001(a)(1)(B) to decide whether a user is under 16 years of age, when that provision speaks only to whether the operator has reasonably determined that the user is not a minor?
What it reaches
Age threshold
16
Covered services
Internet websites, online services, or applications that offer an addictive feed as a significant part of the service, excluding commercial transaction sites and cloud storage services.
How the hook was established
express
What makes it apply
Data subject residence
Verification methods
Device signal, Self declaration
What it makes you log
Log retention
No period is stated; the section requires deletion.
- As of
- Basis
- Unspecified
- Prohibits retaining
- the account of a user under 16 years of age and any personal information associated with that user, unless the platform lets the user keep an account without addictive features
Logging duty
The act requires a covered platform to verify age under the Digital Age Assurance Act and names no log or record of the check. Section 22684(b) goes the other way for a user under 16: the account and its personal information are deleted.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Bars users under 16 from accessing addictive feeds, autoplay, and similar engagement features on covered platforms, using age determinations from the Digital Age Assurance Act or Health and Safety Code Section 27001, and creates an e-Safety Advisory Commission within the Department of Justice. Passed the Assembly and Senate, was enrolled and presented to the Governor on , and was approved and chaptered as Chapter 183, Statutes of 2026 on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.
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