CA Governor Adopts CSAM Reporting Law, Online Safety Bills

AB 1946 was originally proposed by Assm. Buffy Wicks, a Democrat hailing from Oakland, with coauthors across both chambers of the California Legislature.

"Today’s legislation makes clear that California will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk," Newsom said in a press statement announcing the adoption of the legislative package. "Innovation comes with responsibility, and protecting our children comes first."

Newsom's spouse, the First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, added in the statement that "safety must not be an afterthought—but baked into design."

Gov. Newsom concluded, "Our children’s safety deserves to be at the center of every conversation about technology."

AB 1946 should be the most concerning for adult entertainment platforms, notes attorney Corey Silverstein of the Michigan-based law practice Silverstein Legal. Silverstein told AVN, "Nobody in the legitimate adult entertainment industry should have any objection to meaningful measures designed to identify and remove actual CSAM.

"The industry has spent decades making clear that lawful adult entertainment and child exploitation are two entirely different things," he observed. "That said, AB 1946 is significant because California is moving well beyond simply requiring platforms to maintain a reporting mechanism.

"The bill imposes very specific operational requirements, including a clear and conspicuous reporting process, human review in certain circumstances where there is no known hash match, removal or blocking within 48 hours when there is a reasonable basis to believe the material constitutes CSAM, follow-up communications with the reporting party, and efforts to locate and block additional instances of the same material," explained Silverstein, describing the structure and processes of the bill.

According to the officially adopted bill language reviewed by AVN, "social media companies" are now required to provide plain-language processes for people who report suspected CSAM or unlawful depictions of a minor. That means the bill revises California's legal definition of what constitutes child sexual abuse material. The definition of CSAM now includes any "intimate visual depiction" of an identifiable minor, including digital synthetics created by arificial intelligence platforms.

"The bill would require a social media platform to, among other things, ensure review by a natural person if there is not an established or known hash match to child sexual abuse material with respect to the reported material and the reported material is not otherwise blocked," reads a digest of the legislation published by the California legislative branch.

"The bill would require a social media platform to restore availability or functionality of the reporting mechanism if the reporting mechanism is unavailable or nonfunctional," it adds.

Silverstein cautioned: "Those obligations are backed by extraordinarily serious potential liability. In some circumstances, civil penalties can reach $250,000 for each day of noncompliance, and the legislation also preserves substantial statutory damages that can be pursued by depicted individuals.

"One particularly important aspect of AB 1946 is its express recognition of AI-generated and digitally manipulated imagery," he added. "California is clearly attempting to build a legal framework capable of addressing synthetic material rather than limiting its laws to traditional photographs or videos."

Set to enter into force on Jan. 1, 2027, AB 1946 would also require audits and reporting to be filed with the California Attorney General's Office and the state Department of Justice.

"Lawmakers need to remain conscious of the danger of creating systems that incentivize platforms to remove lawful speech whenever there is uncertainty," Silverstein concluded. "A platform facing potentially enormous penalties will naturally have an incentive to err on the side of removal."

Silverstein published additional guidance on his firm's website in a blog post titled "California’s New Child-Safety Laws: What Adult Platforms Need to Know for 2027."