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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a moderate Democrat, signed a package of 13 online safety bills Thursday that will introduce new requirements for certain online platforms, including those that host user-generated adult content. Newsom’s office described the measures as “nation-leading protections for children online.”
The legislation includes new rules involving age-appropriate design and age-assurance procedures for certain social media features. However, none of the measures establishes full site-level age verification requirements for adult entertainment websites, leaving California among the states without such a law.
One of the measures, AB 1946, requires operators of online user-generated content platforms, including mainstream and adult sites, to provide mechanisms for reporting suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The requirements also cover AI-generated synthetic material designed to depict minors.
AB 1946 was originally introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat, with lawmakers from both chambers of the California Legislature serving as coauthors.
“Today’s legislation makes clear that California will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk,” Newsom said in a statement announcing the legislative package. “Innovation comes with responsibility, and protecting our children comes first.”
Newsom’s spouse, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, said in the same statement that “safety must not be an afterthought—but baked into design.”
Newsom added, “Our children’s safety deserves to be at the center of every conversation about technology.”
For adult entertainment platforms, AB 1946 may be the most significant measure in the package, according to attorney Corey Silverstein of Michigan-based Silverstein Legal. Silverstein said, “Nobody in the legitimate adult entertainment industry should have any objection to meaningful measures designed to identify and remove actual CSAM.
“The industry has spent decades making clear that lawful adult entertainment and child exploitation are two entirely different things,” he said. “That said, AB 1946 is significant because California is moving well beyond simply requiring platforms to maintain a reporting mechanism.
“The bill imposes very specific operational requirements, including a clear and conspicuous reporting process, human review in certain circumstances where there is no known hash match, removal or blocking within 48 hours when there is a reasonable basis to believe the material constitutes CSAM, follow-up communications with the reporting party, and efforts to locate and block additional instances of the same material,” Silverstein explained.
Under the adopted legislation, “social media companies” must provide plain-language procedures for people reporting suspected CSAM or unlawful depictions of minors. The measure also changes California’s legal definition of CSAM to include an “intimate visual depiction” of an identifiable minor, including synthetic digital material generated using artificial intelligence.
“The bill would require a social media platform to, among other things, ensure review by a natural person if there is not an established or known hash match to child sexual abuse material with respect to the reported material and the reported material is not otherwise blocked,” reads a legislative digest published by California lawmakers.
“The bill would require a social media platform to restore availability or functionality of the reporting mechanism if the reporting mechanism is unavailable or nonfunctional,” it adds.
Silverstein also pointed to the potential financial consequences for platforms. “Those obligations are backed by extraordinarily serious potential liability. In some circumstances, civil penalties can reach $250,000 for each day of noncompliance, and the legislation also preserves substantial statutory damages that can be pursued by depicted individuals.
“One particularly important aspect of AB 1946 is its express recognition of AI-generated and digitally manipulated imagery,” he added. “California is clearly attempting to build a legal framework capable of addressing synthetic material rather than limiting its laws to traditional photographs or videos.”
AB 1946 is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2027. The law will also require audits and reports to be submitted to the California Attorney General’s Office and the state Department of Justice.
“Lawmakers need to remain conscious of the danger of creating systems that incentivize platforms to remove lawful speech whenever there is uncertainty,” Silverstein concluded. “A platform facing potentially enormous penalties will naturally have an incentive to err on the side of removal.”
Silverstein has published additional guidance for adult platforms in a blog post titled “California’s New Child-Safety Laws: What Adult Platforms Need to Know for 2027.”
