Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a children's cyber security bill that could change the way social networks, games and other services treat minors. After that, California will take broader measures to protect the data and privacy of Internet users under the age of 18.

Despite opposition from the technology industry, the California legislature unanimously passed the California Age Design Code Act at the end of August. This is the first state regulation in the United States that requires online services that teenagers may use to provide extensive safeguards for users under the age of 18.

The bill will require websites and applications to restrict certain popular features, such as allowing strangers to send messages to each other, because this may pose a risk to young users. In addition, it will require online services to turn on the highest privacy settings for children by default. Governor Newsom said in a statement: "We are taking positive action in California to protect the health and well-being of our children."

The new law forces online services to take proactive security measures, taking into account the best interests of young users from the beginning in the process of designing products and features. The law may apply to a wide range of digital products that people under the age of 18 may use, including social networks, game platforms, online toys, voice assistants and intelligent learning tools.

The impact of the legislation could also extend beyond California, prompting many services to introduce change across the United States, rather than discriminating against California minors.

However, many industry groups oppose the legislation, saying it is too broad and its provisions are too vague to be implemented.

TechNet, an industry group that represents many of America's largest technology companies, has pressed California lawmakers to narrow the definition of "children" in the bill to people under the age of 16, rather than minors under the age of 18. The agency also warned that many online services for the general audience may be accessed by children, which will subject a large number of websites and applications to the new law.

A number of civil liberties experts believe that this measure may also have adverse consequences for adults. To force websites to treat children differently, popular services for the general audience may establish intrusive age verification systems that require all users to provide sensitive personal information to companies, they warn.

But children's groups say the legislation is necessary to protect young users from automated systems that may expose minors to harmful content and adult strangers. Or make them online for hours on end.

Earlier this month, Irish regulators fined Meta, the parent company of Facebook, $400m for violating European data protection rules when handling children's data on Instagram.

The California law will come into effect in 2024, and Britain implemented comprehensive online protection for minors last year. At that time, major platforms such as Google, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Snap announced new safeguards for young users around the world.

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