California passes device age-gating law with Google's support

Setting up a new phone used to mean connecting to Wi-Fi and signing into an account. California now wants to add a mandatory age checkpoint to that ritual.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1043, the Digital Age Assurance Act, alongside a comprehensive bundle of child safety bills targeting Big Tech, social platforms, and AI companions.

OS providers on the hook

The law mandates that device operating systems and app stores prompt users to enter their age or date of birth during the initial setup of a new phone or computer. The new mandate kicks in on January 1, 2027.

For devices activated before that cutoff, OS makers like Apple and Google must provide a mechanism for users to submit their age by July 1, 2027.

The state is backing the rule with teeth: negligent violations carry penalties of up to $2,500 per impacted child, while intentional non-compliance can run up to $7,500 per child. However, platforms receive a liability shield for inaccurate age signals as long as they make a good-faith effort.

California deliberately avoided the messy pitfalls seen elsewhere. The bill does not require parental consent for app downloads, nor does it force users to upload government IDs—a flashpoint that caused public backlash over the UK's Online Safety Act.

Alongside AB 1043, Newsom signed accompanying measures requiring warning labels on social media, mandatory crisis intervention protocols for companion AI chatbots, penalties up to $250,000 for nonconsensual deepfake pornography, and a ban on blaming autonomous AI actions to escape legal liability.

A divided tech front

Utah, Texas, and Louisiana already paved the way with similar age assurance measures, but California's version caused fascinating divisions across the tech landscape.

Meta supported the shift early on, largely because putting age checks at the OS level shifts the compliance burden away from apps like Instagram and onto Apple and Google. Surprisingly, Google also backed AB 1043, praising it as a thoughtful approach recognizing shared ecosystem responsibility.

Apple, on the other hand, has stayed conspicuously quiet. Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Association urged lawmakers to reject the measure, arguing it will create chaos for shared streaming household accounts where parents and children use different profiles. Bill sponsor Buffy Wicks promised to fine-tune unresolved issues next year.

Why it matters

For everyday consumers, filling in a birth date during setup feels relatively painless compared to scanning a driver’s license. But for families sharing a living-room tablet or laptop, OS-level age gating could quickly become a headache, potentially locking shared media profiles behind clunky system hurdles.

For the tech industry, California's legislation is the tipping point. When smaller states pass age gating, tech giants often challenge them in court; when California acts, it sets de facto national product defaults. Shifting the burden directly to OS providers like Apple and Google means device manufacturers will have to build persistent identity layers into iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows.

We think California's choice to avoid biometric scanning or government ID uploads is a smart concession to privacy advocates that avoided immediate disaster. But the loophole is glaring: an honor-system date picker does virtually nothing to stop a tech-savvy ten-year-old from entering a 1990 birth year. If this soft check fails to satisfy regulators down the line, it looks inevitable that the state will be pressured to mandate far more intrusive verification methods.