Policy / Law

California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273)

Sep 2022 🇺🇸 California State Legislature

The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273) was signed into law on September 15, 2022, requiring online products likely to be accessed by children under 18 to complete data-protection impact assessments, default to high-privacy settings, and avoid design that is materially detrimental to children's wellbeing or that uses dark patterns to draw out their personal data. The law was explicitly modeled on the UK code Kidron helped create, and Kidron and her 5Rights Foundation publicly supported its passage. Violations can carry civil penalties of up to $2,500 per affected child for negligent breaches and $7,500 for intentional ones. TechKids Foundation cites this law as a second, independently enacted jurisdiction's policy response tracing directly back to Kidron's UK advocacy, treating manipulative design as a regulatory problem rather than making any diagnostic claim about individual children.

$2,500–$7,500 per child

Civil penalties the California Attorney General can pursue against businesses that violate the Act — $2,500 per affected child for negligent violations, $7,500 for intentional violations.

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CITATION

California Assembly Bill 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, ch. 320, Stats. 2022 (approved by the Governor September 15, 2022).

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