For Immediate Release
August 11, 2022
Contact: press@accountabletech.org

Accountable Tech Executive Director Nicole Gill issued the following statement after The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act cleared the State Senate Appropriations Committee, its final legislative hurdle before expected passage in the full Senate:

“Today’s vote in the California Senate Appropriations Committee brings us closer than ever to securing a future in which the internet is fundamentally designed around the best interests of young people. If passed by the full Senate and signed into law, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act will upend the status quo in which the pervasive surveillance, profiling, and manipulation of our children is the cost of admission for access to the digital world, and their privacy and wellbeing is a mere afterthought.

Accountable Tech is proud to stand with countless youth activists who have made this moment possible. As this bill heads to the Senate floor for final passage, we urge lawmakers to continue to listen to the overwhelming majority of California voters and send this legislation directly to Governor Newsom’s desk.

This law will be a transformative model of what it looks like to ensure kids and teens have positive experiences online. States around the country will take notice, and we will pressure Big Tech to embrace these standards globally, so that every child is protected from abuse and exploitation, not just those in California

It is past time that online platforms put children’s wellbeing over profit, period.”

Additional Background:

• Polling from Accountable Tech + Data For Progress shows 90% of California voters support the AADC. Last year, AT commissioned a separate, nationwide poll of parents that found equally overwhelming support for expanding minors’ online protections.

• Working with youth advocacy groups LOG OFF and Tech(nically) Politics, AT supported the launch of ‘Design It For Us’, an innovative multimedia effort for young people to share why online spaces should be designed with them in mind.

• AT has helped hundreds of young Californians make their voices heard in support of the bill through petitions, storytelling, and contact-your-legislator tools – part of AT’s ongoing work to ensure young people have a seat at the table.

• Learn more about the Design Code, and the sweeping coalition of advocates who have endorsed it, at CaliforniaAADC.com.

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