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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1481697
The World’s Fifth Largest Economy Protects Kids By SecureMac.com California has just passed the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act. If signed into law, it will have a major impact on digital privacy for children nationwide. According to a piece in TechCrunch, the proposed law is designed to safeguard anyone under the age of 18 when they go online. Interestingly, the law would not only apply to apps, but also to businesses that offer online services or products used by children — which would likely include EdTech and gaming platforms as well. The piece says that one of the law’s key provisions is to require strong privacy by default for underage users, which would include “disabling features that profile children using their previous behavior, browsing history, or assumptions of their similarity to other children, to offer detrimental material.” Fines would be steep: $2,500 per child affected for accidental violations and $7,500 per child affected for intentional ones. It’s a big deal for children all across the United States, because California has an outsized influence on the country. That’s due in part to its sheer size: over 1 in 10 Americans live there, and the state’s economy is so large that if California were an independent nation, its economy would rank fifth in the world by GDP. The upshot for tech companies and app creators is that it will be safer and more cost effective to simply improve privacy for all users rather than attempting to develop separate products just for California (and risk running afoul of the law). That’s something for parents and kids to cheer — from sea to shining sea!