EPIC Recommends Privacy-Protective Age Assurance Standards in Comments to the California DOJ

This week EPIC submitted comments for the California Department of Justice’s hearing on the upcoming rulemaking on SB 976, “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act.” SB 976 regulates “addictive feeds,” otherwise known as engagement-maximizing algorithms that select and organize media for users based on users’ behavior on their platform and not their explicit preferences.

EPIC recommended that the California DOJ prioritize privacy- and speech-protective age assurance methods and standards in the rulemaking. The rules should also make clear that SB 976 does not require companies to age gate their entire platforms. In other words, companies complying with SB 976 could turn off addictive feeds and push notifications for all users by default and only require users who wish to turn these features on to go through the age assurance process.

EPIC regularly advocates for privacy for minors online and platform accountability and governance policies that protect the speech, privacy, anti-discrimination, and safety rights of all internet users, including minors. Since its passage, EPIC has publicly supported SB 976 and has filed amicus briefs supporting Attorney General Bonta both in the district court and in the Ninth Circuit.