California passes bill aimed at making the internet safer for kids
Summary
Californias state legislature passed a bill this week that, if enacted, would require online platforms to take extra measures to ensure their services are safe for young users. The bill would require online services to install additional safeguards for users under 18, including by defaulting to the highest possible privacy settings in most cases and providing "an obvious signal" to the minor when their location is being monitored (such as by a parent or guardian). It also would prohibit the use of so-called dark patterns — essentially design tricks made to steer users toward a specific choice — that would encourage minors to give away personal information that would not be necessary to provide the service. Californias legislation could become the basis of other state or federal design codes, or could even encourage platforms to proactively change their services across the country, due in part to the difficulty of applying different standards based on location. The idea of requiring design safeguards became an especially hot topic in Congress late last year when former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testified about the internal documents she exposed that showed the company was aware of how its products might harm kids mental health.