First-of-its-kind legislation will keep California’s children safer while online

California lawmakers passed first-of-its-kind legislation on Monday designed to improve the online safety and privacy protections for children.

The bill, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, will require firms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to install guardrails for users under the age of 18, including defaulting to higher privacy settings for minors and refraining from collecting location data for those users.

It also requires companies to analyze their algorithms and products to determine how they may affect young users, assessing whether they are designed to be addictive or could cause additional harm to children.

Children's safety advocates have applauded the bill, which passed in a vote of 33 to 0, saying similar federal legislation is needed to protect young users. The bill is "a huge step forward toward creating the internet that children and families deserve", said Josh Golin, executive director at advocacy group Fairplay.

"For far too long, tech companies have treated their egregious privacy and safety issues as a PR problem to be addressed only through vague promises, obfuscations, and delays," he said. "Now, tech platforms will be required to prioritize young Californians' interests and wellbeing ahead of reckless growth and shareholder dividends."

Meanwhile some privacy advocates have raised concerns about the sweeping scope of the bill, as it may require all users to authenticate their age and restrict anonymous browsing online.

"The bill will dramatically degrade the internet experience for everyone and will empower a new censorship-focused regulator who has no interest or expertise in balancing complex and competing interests," wrote Eric Goldman, a law professor and critic of the bill.