California governor signs ban on social media ‘aiding and abetting’ child abuse

Addie Robertson reports via The Verge: California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1394 into law, which penalizes web services that “knowingly facilitate, aid, or abet the commercial sexual exploitation” of children. It’s one of several online regulations California has passed in recent years, some of which have been challenged as unconstitutional. Newsom’s office said in a press release yesterday that he signed AB 1394, which passed the California Legislature in late September.

This law is scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2025. The law adds new rules and responsibilities aimed at forcing social media services to crack down on child sexual abuse material and adds penalties for sites that “knowingly” leave reported material online. . More broadly, “aiding or abetting” is defined to include “deployment.”[ing] “A system, design, feature, or affordance that is a significant factor in rendering a minor user a victim of commercial sexual exploitation.” Services can limit risk by conducting regular audits of their systems. The text of the bill cites the following whistleblowing as a motive: Facebook responded poorly to child abuse on its platform and a 2022 Forbes article alleging that TikTok Live has become a haven for adults to prey on teenage users.