Bipartisan California bills seek to rein in child social media use, sexually explicit material online

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Polarizing politics typically pits the two parties against one another, but California Republicans and Democrats have joined forces this week on two bills targeting internet use.

Assembly Bill 1709 states the Legislature’s intention to impose a minimum age requirement for people to open or maintain a social media account. Assembly Bill 1705 would require the operator of a pornographic website to use reasonable care, ensuring people depicted in sexually explicit conduct have given their consent.

The social media bill has seven authors, including two Republicans. One of them, Assemblymember Josh Hoover, called social media a strong bipartisan issue.

Hoover, a Folsom Republican, has targeted cellphone use in schools in previous legislation.

“This bill takes an important step forward and does even more,” Hoover told Courthouse News about the social media bill.

Some studies have linked social media use to mental health issues, Hoover noted. He said it’s led the nation to a crisis point.

The bill currently states that lawmakers intend to establish a minimum age for people to have a social media account. Hoover said those details remain under discussion, though he pointed to children aged 10 to 16 as facing the most impacts of social media.

Hoover also pointed to Australia’s social media law, which bans children under 16 from social media like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Those affected can’t create new accounts. Existing accounts were removed.

“This is not a party issue,” Hoover said. “This is a parent issue.”

Parents have a role in any restrictions their children have over social media use, he added. However, California could offer them assistance with the bill.

The other co-authors include Assemblymember Joe Patterson, a Rocklin Republican, and five Democrats: Assemblymembers Josh Lowenthal, Long Beach; David Alvarez, San Diego; Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, Orinda; Mia Bonta and Buffy Wicks, both of Oakland.

Bauer-Kahan is one of the authors of Assembly Bill 1705, along with Assemblymember Diane Dixon, a Newport Beach Republican.

Their bill has more detail than the social media legislation. It builds on existing law that currently requires social media companies to provide a method for California residents to report child sexual abuse material. Existing law also makes it illegal to distribute a picture of an intimate body part or sexual act when the person depicted is identifiable and they believed the image would remain private.

Their legislation would require pornographic website operators to use ordinary care and reasonable diligence to stop sexually explicit content from appearing on their sites if those depicted didn’t consent. It would also make them verify that people uploading such content received the consent of those depicted. Additionally, people would have to have certifications that the people shown consented to the content’s creation and publication.

“Every day, countless Californians, especially women and children, are victimized by sexual imagery posted online without their knowledge or permission,” Bauer-Kahan said in a statement. “The recent explosion of AI-generated deepfakes has made this crisis exponentially worse.”

According to Bauer-Kahan, online platforms have millions of pictures and videos depicting people who didn’t consent to the release of the content. Generative artificial intelligence, called GenAI, has only fueled the problem, as apps can “undress” people in photos and chatbots can make realistic, explicit images based on nonsexual photos.

“Widespread access to the internet and generative AI tools have made it far too easy for non-consensual sexually explicit material to be posted online,” Dixon said in a statement. “This important legislation will ensure that uploaders are held accountable for the content they share on pornographic websites.”

The bill would enable people and public prosecutors to file civil actions enforcing the law.

Dixon introduced a similar bill by herself last year, though it failed to make it past a key state Senate committee. The Republican expressed excitement over partnering with Bauer-Kahan to move this new bill forward.