Cybersecurity Policy Report, Senate Committee Advances Children’s Privacy Bill in California, (Aug 14, 2026)
The California state Senate Appropriations Committee voted 7-0 this week to pass a bill that would revise certain requirements for businesses providing online services likely to be accessed by minors and impose new restrictions and penalties.
The bill seeks to make changes to California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AADC) in response to court rulings that found that much of the previous law violated the First Amendment. The court enjoined certain provisions of the law—particularly those related to data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) and vague data-use restrictions.
AB 2246 proposes to remove certain exceptions while imposing stricter privacy and data protection obligations. Among other things, the bill would require businesses to estimate the age of users with reasonable certainty or apply child privacy protections to all users, set high default privacy settings for children, provide clear and age-appropriate privacy information, and offer tools for children and their guardians to exercise privacy rights.
In addition, the bill would prohibit profiling children by default, using personal information in ways that could cause harm or discrimination, collecting or retaining unnecessary personal data, and collecting or sharing precise geolocation data except when strictly necessary and with clear notification. It would also restrict the use and retention of data collected for age estimation purposes.
The legislation would establish civil penalties for violations, increasing the maximum fines to $5,000 per affected child for negligent violations and $15,000 per affected child for intentional violations. All penalties collected would be deposited into a consumer privacy fund to offset enforcement costs. The bill clarifies that it does not create a private right of action but allows the state attorney general to enforce the bill’s provisions.
“As new technology continues to emerge and evolve, there needs to be comprehensive guardrails that protect children and their privacy while they are interacting and consuming content online. Providing more safeguards for children and their privacy is important because its misuse can expose children to harmful material, risks to their mental and physical health, and other challenges. AB 2246 would help make technology and online products safer for children and protect them from risks and features that may be harmful to them,” said Assembly member Buffy Wicks (D.), sponsor of the bill (A.B. 2246, Reg Sess.).
News: StateLegislation DataPrivacy