Creating an Age Appropriate Design Code in California

Online safety policies have become a domestic and international priority over the past year, and certain ideas have already been codified into law. In the US and around the world, governments have attempted to require companies to moderate harmful content online while protecting free speech and expression, implement age verification and identification tools while respecting users’ privacy, and mandate transparency measures without exposing trade secrets or users’ personal information. But one effort takes a slightly different approach, and has had the most significant effect so far on the Western internet: implementing an age-appropriate design code for online products, services, and platforms.

This brief examines the creation and implementation of the Age Appropriate Design Code in the UK, its effects so far on industry and families, California’s attempt to implement their own version of a design code, and some of the benefits and unknowns that need to be further explored.

To read the full brief, please click here.