California AB 1043 Digital Age Assurance Act (+ AB 1856)

California — AB 1043, the Digital Age Assurance Act (Signed October 13, 2025, Effective January 1, 2027), as Extended by AB 1856 (2026): OPERATING SYSTEM PROVIDERS Must Collect an Age or Birth Date at Account Setup and Pass a NON-IDENTIFYING AGE-BRACKET SIGNAL to App Developers on Request — Without Verifying It — and Developers Must Treat That Signal as the Primary Age Indicator; This Is the Verification Layer the State's AI Chatbot and Addictive-Feed Laws Run On
California · Cal. AB 1043 (2025-2026 Reg. Sess.), the Digital Age Assurance Act (signed Oct. 13, 2025, operative Jan. 1, 2027), as extended by Cal. AB 1856 (2026)

Status
Enacted (not yet in effect)
Takes effect
January 1, 2027
Applies to
Operating system providers offering account setup to California users; application developers distributing covered applications; covered application stores.
Enforced by
California Attorney General

California's Digital Age Assurance Act puts age-checking at the operating system layer rather than at each app or website. When someone sets up a device account, the OS provider — Apple, Google and the like — must present an interface asking for the user's birth date or age. The OS then passes along, to any app developer who asks, WHICH OF FOUR AGE BRACKETS that user falls into: under 13, 13 to under 16, 16 to under 18, or at least 18. It does NOT verify that the answer is true, and it does NOT hand over the birth date itself. App developers must request that signal when an app is downloaded and when it launches, and must treat it as the primary indicator of the user's age unless they have clear and convincing evidence otherwise. The California Attorney General enforces it, at $2,500 per affected child for negligent violations and $7,500 per affected child for intentional ones. There is no private right of action. AB 1856, signed in the September 2026 child-safety package, clarifies and extends this — formalizing the non-identifying bracket signals from both operating systems and app stores, and protecting open-source systems from the compliance burden. WHY THIS BELONGS IN A DATASET ABOUT AI PROTECTIONS: it is the plumbing the rest of California's child-safety AI law depends on. AB 1709 bans addictive feed features for users under 16 and expects platforms to establish age through AB 1043. SB 1119, Adam's Law, imposes session limits, parental notification and independent child-safety audits on AI companion chatbots used by minors. Both need to know who is a minor. This statute is how they find out.

Who is protected: California minors in three defined bands (under 13, 13 to under 16, 16 to under 18), indirectly — the statute itself restricts no content; it supplies the age signal that other California statutes use to trigger protections. Adult users are also affected, in that age information is collected at the OS layer.

Legal detail

Cal. AB 1043 (2025-2026 Reg. Sess.), the Digital Age Assurance Act, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom October 13, 2025, operative January 1, 2027. Obligations: (1) operating system providers must provide an interface at account setup prompting the account holder to indicate the device user's birth date or age, and must communicate the corresponding age range to developers upon request, WITHOUT any obligation to verify accuracy; (2) the statute specifies four age ranges — under 13 years of age, 13 to under 16, 16 to under 18, and at least 18; (3) application developers must request the age signal when an application is downloaded and when it is launched, and must treat that signal as the primary indicator of the user's age unless clear and convincing evidence indicates otherwise. Covered parties include operating system providers, application developers and covered application stores. Enforcement is vested in the California Attorney General, with statutory penalties of $2,500 per affected child for negligent violations and $7,500 per affected child for intentional violations. NO private right of action — a deliberate contrast with Utah and Texas age-verification laws, which route remedies through consumer protection statutes carrying private claims. Design rationale reported in analysis of the Act: it imposes no direct content restriction, creating instead an age-signaling infrastructure on which other statutes operate, which is intended to reduce First Amendment exposure relative to content-based age-gating regimes. AB 1856 (2026), signed as part of the September 2026 child-safety package, clarifies and extends AB 1043 by formalizing non-personally-identifiable age-bracket signals from operating systems and application stores across the same four categories and by protecting open-source systems from the compliance requirements.

Key facts

JurisdictionCalifornia
LevelState
StrengthModerate
EnactedOctober 13, 2025
CitationCal. AB 1043 (2025-2026 Reg. Sess.), the Digital Age Assurance Act (signed Oct. 13, 2025, operative Jan. 1, 2027), as extended by Cal. AB 1856 (2026)
Private right of actionNo, agency enforcement only
Penalties$2,500 per affected child for negligent violations; $7,500 per affected child for intentional violations.
Topicschildren's online safety · consumer data privacy · consumer protection · AI disclosure and transparency
Legal analysisFAQ: The Digital Age Assurance Act — California Youth Safety on the Internet (Kelley Drye, Ad Law Access)

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