{"id":237754,"date":"2026-05-01T04:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/california-nears-vote-on-social-media-age-checks-amid-privacy-clash\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:55:07","slug":"california-nears-vote-on-social-media-age-checks-amid-privacy-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/california-nears-vote-on-social-media-age-checks-amid-privacy-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"California nears vote on social media age checks amid privacy clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

California nears vote on social media age checks amid privacy clash<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.biometricupdate.com\/202605\/california-nears-vote-on-social-media-age-checks-amid-privacy-clash<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-01 04:21:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.biometricupdate.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Debate surrounding California\u2019s latest age assurance law is seeing rhetoric amp up on both sides of the issue, with lawmakers set to vote on a bill as early as next week.<\/p>\n

Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal introduced AB-1709 to keep children off platforms that have addictive features, such as notifications, endless scrolls and autoplay The age verification bill \u201cwould prohibit a covered platform, as defined, from permitting a user who is under 16 years of age to create or maintain an account on the covered platform and would require a covered platform to implement reasonable measures to prevent users under 16 years of age from accessing or using accounts on the covered platform.\u201d It would also create a new e-Safety Advisory Commission to enforce the law.<\/p>\n

Quoted by Komo News, Lowenthal says social media is \u201cwreaking havoc on the minds of our youth\u201d and that platforms \u201chave adopted design choices that malignantly target users\u2019 neurological systems, leading to addiction, depression, and, in grave circumstances, death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics say bill would destroy privacy, but social media has already done that
<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Opponents of the bill are equally agitated. A blog from the Electronic Frontier Foundation beseeches readers: \u201cAct Now to Stop California\u2019s Paternalistic and Privacy-Destroying Social Media Ban.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder this bill, all Californians would be required to submit highly sensitive government-issued ID or biometric information to private companies simply to participate in the modern public square,\u201d EFF says. And, \u201cwhen California leads \u2013 especially on tech \u2013 other states follow. There is no reason for California to lead the nation into an unconstitutional social media ban that destroys privacy and harms youth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, a blog from Cambridge Analytica frets that \u201cCalifornia lawmakers are fast-tracking a sweeping bill that would require every resident \u2013 regardless of age \u2013 to hand over government-issued ID or biometric…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California nears vote on social media age checks amid privacy clash https:\/\/www.biometricupdate.com\/202605\/california-nears-vote-on-social-media-age-checks-amid-privacy-clash Publish Date: 2026-05-01…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":237755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/d1sr9z1pdl3mb7.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/05181136\/digital-id-wallet-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-237754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy","tag-tracking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237756,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237754\/revisions\/237756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}