Apps must treat the age signal as the “primary indicator” of a user’s age, according to a Kelley Drye summary of California’s Digital Age Assurance Act. That signal starts with a plain question on the setup screen of new phones and computers, and the requirement begins Jan. 1, 2027.
The law, AB 1043, was approved by the governor on Oct. 13, 2025, and the legislative record lists it as Chapter 675 of the Statutes of 2025. The answer becomes an age bracket that apps can request, with no ID check and no parental-consent requirement attached. A 2026 follow-up bill exempts open-source operating systems, so “every” new user comes with a few limits.
Four Age Brackets Apps Will See
Under the law, the setup screen must let the account holder enter the user’s birth date, age, or both. The operating system then sorts the user into one of four brackets: under 13, 13 to under 16, 16 to under 18, or 18 and older. The prompt joins another California rule for young users, the ban on addictive features for accounts under 16, and parents of kindergartners juggling a busy school week can browse these easy lunch ideas for kindergarten kids on Frenz Hub.
When an app is downloaded and launched, its developer must ask the operating system for that bracket. A developer that receives the signal is treated as knowing the user’s age range, Kelley Drye notes. The operating system is limited to sending the minimum information needed and cannot share the signal with third parties for purposes the law does not require. New devices also arrive with accessories, and a guide on how to clean AirPods and their case is one of many small tasks that come with a fresh setup.
Developers are not free to ignore what the signal says. They must treat it as the primary indicator of age unless they have clear and convincing information showing otherwise. What reaches the app is a coarse bracket, not a birth date, which is how the law tries to limit what is shared.
Devices Already in Use Get Until July 1, 2027
The Jan. 1 date applies to accounts set up from that day forward. Malwarebytes reports that Windows, macOS, iOS and Android must comply on that date, and the legislative record says devices set up earlier must offer the age-entry screen before July 1, 2027.
For minors, the adult account holder is the one who answers. A TrueVault analysis notes that when the user is under 18, an adult account holder must indicate the user’s age. A cleanup bill, AB 1856, deleted the original definition of “user” as a child who is the device’s primary user, which keeps the age-bracket system working for adults too. Some young adults have gone the other way entirely, with flip phone sales up 148% among 18- to 24-year-olds from 2021 to 2024, and families sorting out how to raise kids around devices can read about gentle parenting.
Anyone setting up a first phone for a child over the holidays will likely meet the prompt right away. It is a long way from the childhood phones in this look back at little rituals from the ’80s and ’90s that disappeared, and former teacher Robert Pondiscio argues that screens and shielding parents shape Gen Alpha.
No ID Check, No Parental Consent, and Fines for Violations
The age is self-declared. The law requires no formal verification and, unlike laws in Utah and Texas, creates no parental-consent requirement for downloads. Schools have been drawing their own lines on phones, as in the Michigan classroom smartphone ban, but this law only produces a signal and leaves the decisions to apps.
Enforcement belongs to the California Attorney General. Penalties run up to $2,500 per affected child for a negligent violation and up to $7,500 per affected child for an intentional one, and the law carries no private right of action. Operating system providers and app stores that make a good-faith effort to comply are shielded from liability for erroneous signals.
California is not alone. Malwarebytes notes that Colorado’s SB26-051 is now law with parallel open-source exemptions, that Illinois has passed similar legislation and that New York has a bill in progress. TrueVault adds that an earlier version of the California bill would have applied to all websites, but that language was removed before passage.
Open-Source Exemption and the Privacy Debate
AB 1856 was chaptered on Sept. 10, 2026 as Chapter 184. It excludes from the definition of an operating system provider anyone who distributes software under licenses that allow recipients to copy, redistribute and modify it, which covers many Linux distributions, according to ID Tech Wire. Earlier drafts that would have reached browsers and websites did not survive.
Privacy groups remain wary. Malwarebytes reports that the Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes age verification and accused California of “outsourcing censorship to developers.” The advocacy site Reclaim The Net argues that an age bracket is identity data and that the system could grow into ID checks over time, while the signal as enacted is self-declared and shared only on request. The practical difference for a family is small: one extra screen at setup, an adult answering for a child, and a bracket that travels quietly to the apps that ask for it.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Shixart1985 – CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons