One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: CA's AB 1856 Exempts Open Source But Expands Age-Gating | Electronic Frontier Foundation

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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: CA's AB 1856 Exempts Open Source But Expands Age-Gating

DEEPLINKS BLOG

By Molly Buckley<br>May 29, 2026

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: CA's AB 1856 Exempts Open Source But Expands Age-Gating

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After public outrage, California lawmakers are moving closer to exempting open source operating systems from the sweeping age-bracketing regime mandated by last year’s Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043). Nonetheless, the current bill still jeopardizes internet users’ speech, privacy, and security.

While the open source exemption, if passed, would improve the law, the remaining amendments proposed by AB 1856 would require all web browsers and websites to request and collect users’ ages. This is an expansion of last year's AB 1043's age-bracketing system that compounds its constitutional harms to users’ speech, privacy, and security. As AB 1856 moves on to the Senate, EFF will continue fighting for amendments that reduce those harms.

AB 1856 Extends AB 1043’s Age-Gating Regime

Last year, California passed AB 1043, which requires all operating systems and app stores to create age-bracketing systems that segment users based on their ages. As we’ve written, that regime is a recipe for censorship: it creates unnecessary and unconstitutional barriers to accessing lawful online speech, threatens our right to anonymity, and pressures online services to collect troves of valuable and sensitive user data. On top of that, A.B. 1043’s wide-sweeping compliance burdens impose disproportionate harms on the open source ecosystem that underpins much of the modern web.

Given these flaws, lawmakers introduced AB 1856 this year as a supposed “clean-up” bill for AB 1043. But instead of sticking to fixing AB 1043’s unique and serious harms (like its impact on open source operating systems), AB 1856 also expanded the regime even further—extending its age-bracketing requirements beyond operating systems and app stores to browsers and websites.

EFF opposes AB 1856 on two grounds, which we explained in our opposition letter to the Assembly:

The harms that age-gating regimes pose to users’ speech, privacy, and anonymity; and

The disproportionate harms that this particular regime imposes on open source developers.

Open Source Concerns Somewhat Alleviated By Amendment

On May 28th, AB 1856 passed the Assembly in a nearly unanimous vote (68-1).

Before that vote, however, AB 1856 was amended to exempt open source operating systems from liability for compliance with AB 1043. This is a meaningful improvement and a welcome relief for open-source developers, who have been loud and clear about how much of an existential threat A.B. 1043’s age-gating mandate would pose.

The new exception reads:

“Operating system provider” does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms that permit a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software.”

EFF understands this amendment to exempt open-source operating systems from the requirement to collect and transmit users’ age-bracket data. That is a definite win for open source developers. The bill is narrower now than it was before, and lawmakers clearly responded to concerns raised by EFF and the broader open source community.

Some important questions still remain—for example, it is unclear how the law would apply when an open source operating system is incorporated into a commercial product or service. And, given the structure of where the exemption is placed under the “operating system provider” definition, lawmakers could stand to clarify that the exemption applies to open source operating systems and applications.

Nonetheless, that ambiguity aside, this amendment does substantially reduce the threat that AB 1043 could have on many open source developers.

AB 1856 Still Expands the Problematic Age-Bracketing Regime

Don’t get us wrong—if this bill passes, we will be very happy that AB 1043 does...