The California Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced it will hold a public meeting on November 5, 2025, to solicit public comment on its upcoming rulemaking for SB 976, the “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act”. The law, signed in September 2024, is designed to protect minors by limiting addictive features on social media platforms, such as auto-playing media and time-based rewards.
This meeting is critical because the state has decided what it wants to do, but not how. The DOJ is specifically asking the public and the identity industry for input on three undefined and critical areas: methods and standards for age assurance; ongoing compliance obligations for platform operators; and methods for obtaining parental consent.
This consultation is a major inflection point for the identity industry, as it represents a key opportunity to shape age-gating policy in the world’s fifth-largest economy. The meeting is set against a complex and contradictory regulatory backdrop. Only weeks ago, Governor Gavin Newsom signed another age-related law, AB 1043, which pushes for an app-store (Apple/Google) centric model for providing an “age signal”. In contrast, SB 976 places the implementation burden squarely on the social media platforms themselves. The November 5 meeting will be a key battleground for the tech and identity industries to lobby for their preferred, and competing, models.
Sources: California Attorney General’s Office, DataGuidance
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
