CAADCA Section 1798.99.31(a) - Best Interests of Children
Businesses must consider children's best interests — including physical, mental, and emotional well-being — throughout the design, development, and provision of services likely accessed by children
Where this comes from
Provision: Section 1798.99.31(a) - Best Interests of Children
Instrument: California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273)
Citation: Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.99.31(a), California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273)
Text version: California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, AB-2273 (2022); Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1798.99.28–1798.99.40
Who it applies to
Child audience (designed for OR likely accessed by children) — any one of these:
- Service is specifically designed for children under 18
- Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18
Remaining applicability scope — all of these:
- Youngest user age is Under 13, 13-15 or 16-17
- Service uses content personalization
What engineering work it implies
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- High-privacy / high-safety settings are the default for users who are or may be children
- Nudges and engagement patterns that are detrimental to children are removed or off by default
- Geolocation, public visibility, and contact-by-strangers are off by default for minors
- Design decisions affecting children are documented with their rationale
- System handles null/empty input gracefully (no 500 errors)
Questions people ask
- Does CAADCA Section 1798.99.31(a) - Best Interests of Children apply to my service?
- It applies when at least one of: Service is specifically designed for children under 18; Service is likely to be accessed by children under 18; and Youngest user age is Under 13, 13-15 or 16-17; Service uses content personalization.
- From when does this apply?
- CAADCA Section 1798.99.31(a) - Best Interests of Children applies from 1 July 2024. Its current status is: in force.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.