Enforcement Of California's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act Is Put On Ice — For Now

On September 18, 2023, a U.S. District Court judge in the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction enjoining California's attorney general from enforcing California's California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (the CAADCA, or AB 2273). California's governor signed the CAADCA into law a year ago, and it had been set to take effect on July 1, 2024. The law requires businesses, before releasing any online products and services that are "likely to be accessed by children," to comply with a list of enumerated mandates and prohibitions. This included estimating the ages of child users and configuring privacy settings for them or providing the most protective privacy settings for all users; assessing whether their offerings could harm children under the age of 18; and creating data privacy impact assessments (DPIAs) assessing how their data management practices may increase the risk of harm to children.