The privacy nightmare hiding inside California’s new kid-safety rule

I love my home state of California. But sometimes its best intentions go awry.

It’s not surprising that California’s legislature passed the Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043) last October—age verification is currently a popular focus within governments. (And the reason for Discord’s current struggles.) But its approach had multiple PCWorld staffers raising their eyebrows in response—and half of us are residents of the Golden State, so we’ve seen well-meaning legislation with unintended consequences before.

AB 1043 works like this: By July 2027, operating systems and app stores must have a system in place to capture age information (either the number or birthdate, or both). Developers must then request said age information for its users by July 2027 to enact appropriate safeguards, based on the age bracket. The law defines those groups as those under 13, 13 to 15, 15 to 17, and 18+. Ostensibly, the goal is to keep apps from manipulating kids and teens into sharing information that could harm their safety. The bill names “privacy and data protections” as a driving factor behind the legislation.

The problem is, AB 1043 relies on self-reporting for age—while also expecting developers to ignore said data if they have internal information that clearly and convincingly contradicts that number.

Outside of the potential privacy issues that could result (stored age data being stolen from OS or app stores; developers essentially having to monitor and surveil users to predict age based off of usage patterns), I wonder how many developers will tolerate this level of complexity. Sure, California is a decently sized market, but if money’s not involved, then what? For example, will Linux officially become unavailable to Californians? (RIP Dual Boot Diaries?)

I won’t yet call AB 1043 the digital version of Proposition 65, which us Californians get roasted for all the time. The interpretation of the law has resulted in warnings on almost all goods, with sometimes comical effect. (That said, it is handy to know the carcinogens present in things like kitchenware.) I also won’t yet force a comparison with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is responsible for all those cookie consent notices we see everywhere, even while living outside the EU.

But the potential for AB 1043 to echo the effects of these laws hovers overhead. Onerous implementation, a drag on our use of devices, with comparatively lower benefit than intended. Modern parenting is hard, and so too is keeping kids safe. I want smart regulation to help, but this seems more a signal for us digital-literate folk to better educate our representatives about tech. Heck, California’s own governor cautioned a deeper examination of this bill’s impact, when signing it into law.

In this episode of The Full Nerd

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith judge other people’s taste in fake frames (just kidding, Brad and Will love them), as well as reminisce about the GeForce 3 on its 25th anniversary. I expected a verbal brawl, but instead thoroughly enjoyed our nuanced chat about testing methodology, biases, and hardware.

And no, Will. You will never catch me denigrating cats. Sir.

(Not seriously, anyway. Little punks.)

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Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition on our channel, too. PLUS: Adam’s new joint show with Retro Gaming Corps is live! Catch Episode 1 of Expedition: Handheld now!

And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds.

This week’s erratic nerd news

Noisy sneaker treads, a boost to VRAM in a mobile GPU, DNA as storage—I didn’t expect so many quirky stories this week, but I was definitely here for them.

I could do without AI deanonymizing folks on the internet, though. Not that it wasn’t possible before, but…

• ‘The dire state of desktop PCs’: My colleague Mark Hachman took a closer look at the state of desktop PCs in 2026, and man. Things feel grim.

• An attention fix? I don’t like to think technology has wrecked my ability to focus, but sometimes I wonder. This BBC article proposes that adding a bit of difficulty into activities can help increase attentiveness—and life satisfaction.

• I checked my calendar: I thought we had settled this already — apparently, governments aren’t done suing companies over loot boxes. (This time, it’s the state of New York going after Valve.)

• I think that’s a win? If manufacturer listings are any indication, the mobile version of the RTX 5070 may be gaining VRAM—a boost to 12GB. What a bewildering world we live in.

• Windows 11 rising: An analytics service says that Windows 11 now holds close to 75 percent market share—a dramatic jump from the near-even split we saw last year. I’m currently wondering if this jump was aided by users who left the Windows ecosystem altogether.

• Science is a serious business: It’s one thing to figure out why sneaker soles squeak. It’s quite the other to use the knowledge to play music from Star Wars.

• What’s old is new again: MSI is releasing two DDR4 motherboards in Japan, to help ease DIY builders’ pain. The prices currently convert to about $80 USD for the higher-end board.

• Call me hopeful but wary: A DNA storage drive sounds straight out of science fiction, but with so little detail, I’m more eager to see the concept in a sci-fi novel for the moment.

• You can’t hide from AI: Large language models are good at pattern recognition, so security researchers let them loose on anonymous posts (like on Reddit). Turns out they can suss out your real identity if you’re not careful.

I’m gonna say it—I hate Daylight Saving Time. (If you don’t have to experience the one-hour “spring forward” in your part of the world, I am very envious.) I’m gonna be so wrecked.

Catch you all next week. Zzz.

Alaina

This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.