TechKnowable
On Sunday, Governor Newsom made a major move by signing a new piece of legislation into law. This piece of law sets a system of responsibility for key social media platforms, such as Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, as well as TikTok, in order to address the problem of the dissemination of information depicting child sexual abuse.
Signing AB 1394
Governor Gavin Newsom of California has officially signed AB 1394 into law. Web services that intentionally enable, aid, or abet the commercial sexual exploitation of kids are the target of this legislation, which penalizes those businesses. This law, which was approved by the legislature of California toward the end of September, is scheduled to become effective on January 1, 2025.
It establishes a new set of norms and obligations, which compels social media sites to take more stringent efforts to combat the circulation of information depicting or relating to the sexual abuse or exploitation of children. Additionally, it imposes sanctions on platforms who fail to swiftly remove content that is reported to violate these principles and fails to do so after receiving a warning.
The law expands the meaning of “aiding and abetting” to include actions such as deploying features or designs that significantly contribute to kids becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. This applies to a larger context in which the term “aiding and abetting” is used. Web services are strongly urged to do routine system audits in order to reduce the risks associated with their operations.
A crucial provision that requires social media sites to offer users in the state of California with a mechanism for reporting instances when they appear in child sexual exploitation material is included in AB 1394. This provision is considered to be of significant importance. These platforms are obligated to respond to these reports within a specific time frame of thirty-six hours, which is a very strict obligation.
If they fail to conform to particular requirements, they may be subject to legal repercussions, one of which is the permanent suspension of their ability to access the relevant content. The passage of this bill represents a significant win for advocates who are committed to ensuring the safety of children and who have staunchly advocated for its enactment.
Receiving Gratitude from Supporters
The LA Times reported that assembly woman Buffy Wicks (Democratic Party of Oakland), together with advocates for the protection of children, have expressed their appreciation to Governor Newsom for endorsing this piece of legislation.
Wicks welcomed the signing of the law as a testament to California’s commitment to safeguarding vulnerable individuals and providing a clear message to both other states and tech platforms. He said this sent a clear message that California is serious about protecting vulnerable individuals. This message emphasizes that the exploitation of minors through various channels available on the internet will result in repercussions.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit group that is dedicated to campaigning for the online safety of children. Recently, they brought attention to the negative impact that limited self-regulation by social media corporations can have when it comes to the management of materials that depict child sexual assault. They stressed the damage that would be caused to young people and the families of those young people.
Jim Steyer, the founder and chief executive of Common Sense Media as well as a co-sponsor of the bill, emphasized that even though there is still a lot of work to be done to hold social media platforms accountable for the harm they cause to children, teenagers, and their families, the signing of AB 1394 represents a significant step in the right direction. He said that this bill is a significant step in the right direction.
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The bill was inspired by a variety of sources, including complaints from whistleblowers that Facebook had inadequately addressed child abuse incidents on its platform and an article published in 2022 in Forbes that alleged TikTok Live had become a problematic space where adults could potentially target teenage users.
According to an article published by The Verge, this legislation, like a number of other online regulations, raises important considerations regarding the potential for unintended consequences.
These concerns include situations in which platforms may choose to either under-enforce rules in order to prevent intentionally coming across unlawful content or, alternatively, choose to over-enforce them, which may result in the removal of content that is completely innocuous to users.
