Existing law, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, requires, beginning July 1, 2024, a business that provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children to comply with certain requirements. The act requires the business to complete a data protection impact assessment addressing, among other things, whether the design could harm children and whether and how the online product, service, or feature uses system design features to increase, sustain, or extend use of the online product, service, or feature by children, including the automatic playing of media, rewards for time spent, and notifications. Existing law prohibits the business from using the personal information of any child in a way that the business knows, or has reason to know, is materially detrimental to the physical health, mental health, or well-being of a child. Existing law, the Privacy Rights for California Minors in the Digital World, prohibits an operator of an internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application from specified conduct when minors are involved, including the marketing or advertising of alcoholic beverages, firearms, or certain other products or services. Existing law sets forth other related protections for minors, including under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020. This bill, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, would make it unlawful for the operator of an addictive internet-based service or application, as defined, to provide an addictive feed to a user, unless the operator does not have actual knowledge that the user is a minor; commencing January 1, 2027, has reasonably determined that the user is not a minor; or has obtained verifiable parental consent to provide an addictive feed to the user who is a minor. The bill would define "addictive feed" as an internet website, online service, online application, or mobile application, in which multiple pieces of media generated or shared by users are recommended, selected, or prioritized for display to a user based on information provided by the user, or otherwise associated with the user or the user's device, as specified, unless any of certain conditions are met. The bill would make it unlawful for the operator of an addictive internet-based service or application, between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., in the user's local time zone, and between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., Monday through Friday from September through May in the user's local time zone, to send notifications to a user if the operator has actual knowledge that the user is a minor or, commencing January 1, 2027, has not reasonably determined that the user is not a minor, unless the operator has obtained verifiable parental consent to send those notifications, as specified. The bill would set forth related provisions for certain access controls determined by the verified parent through a mechanism provided by the operator. Under the bill, a parent's provision of consent or use of a mechanism, as described above, would not waive, release, otherwise limit, or serve as a defense to, any claim that the parent, or that the user who is a minor or was a minor at the time of using the internet-based service or application, might have against the operator regarding any harm to the mental health or well-being of the user. The bill would require an operator to annually disclose the number of minor users of its addictive internet-based service or application, and of that total the number for whom the operator has received verifiable parental consent to provide an addictive feed, and the number of minor users as to whom the access controls are or are not enabled. Under the bill, these provisions would only be enforced in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General. The bill would require the Attorney General to adopt regulations to further the purposes of these provisions, including regulations regarding age assurance and parental consent by January 1, 2027. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to adopt regulations that provide for exceptions to these provisions, but only if those exceptions further the purpose of protecting minors. The bill would require the Attorney General, in promulgating regulations, to solicit public comment regarding the impact that any regulation might have based on certain nondiscrimination characteristics set forth in existing law. The bill would make these provisions severable.
Sponsored bills
Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, authorizes a local agency, by ordinance, to provide for the creation of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in areas zoned for residential use, as specified. That law prohibits, if a local agency adopts an ordinance to create ADUs in those zones, the local agency from requiring the replacement of offstreet parking spaces if a garage, carport, or covered parking structure is demolished in conjunction with the construction of, or is converted to, an ADU. This bill would also prohibit the local agency from requiring the replacement of offstreet parking spaces if an uncovered parking space is demolished in conjunction with the construction of, or is converted to, an ADU. Existing law requires ministerial approval of ADUs, as specified. Under existing law, a local agency is also required to ministerially approve an application for a building permit within a residential or mixed-use zone to create any of specified variations of ADUs. Existing law imposes various requirements and restrictions on a local agency in connection with the ministerial approval of an application for a building permit for an ADU under these specified variations. This bill would prohibit a local agency from imposing any objective development or design standard that is not authorized by these provisions upon any ADU that meets the requirements of any of the specified variations. Under existing law, one of the above-described variations requires a local agency to ministerially approve a certain number of multiple ADUs within the portion of existing multifamily dwelling structures that are not used as livable space if each unit complies with state building standards for dwellings. This bill would define "livable space" for purposes of the provisions governing ADUs to mean a space in a dwelling intended for human habitation, including living, sleeping, eating, cooking, or sanitation. Under existing law, another one of the above-described variations requires a local agency to ministerially approve not more than 2 ADUs that are located on a lot that has an existing or proposed multifamily dwelling, but are detached from that dwelling, and are subject to a height limitation and rear yard and side setbacks, as specified. This bill would instead authorize, under that variation, up to 8 detached ADUs to be created on a lot with an existing multifamily dwelling, provided that the number of ADUs does not exceed the number of existing units on the lot, and up to 2 detached ADUs on a lot with a proposed multifamily dwelling. By imposing new duties on local governments with respect to the approval of accessory dwelling units, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
This measure would express the Legislature's support for President Joseph Biden's goal of ending hunger and increasing healthy eating and physical activity by 2030.
(1) Existing law provides that a person who willfully disturbs a public school or a public school meeting is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of not more than $500. This bill would exempt from those misdemeanor and fine provisions a person who, at the time of the disturbance, is a pupil of the school district. (2) Existing state law requires the principal of a school or the principal's designee to notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities of the county or city in which the school is situated of certain acts committed by a pupil that may be unlawful, including, among others, the selling or possession of narcotics or other designated controlled or regulated substances, and acts of assault, as specified. This bill instead would eliminate the requirement that the principal or principal's designee notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities of possession of designated controlled or regulated substances by a pupil. The bill would require that the principal or principal's designee notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities if a pupil's act requires notification pursuant to the federal Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994, which conditions certain federal funding on a criminal or juvenile delinquency referral policy for a student who brings a firearm or weapon to a school.
(1) Existing law, beginning on June 26, 2023, establishes the Independent Consumer Fuels Advisory Committee within the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to advise the Energy Commission and the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, as provided. Existing law prescribes the composition of the 8-member committee, including 6 specified members appointed by the Governor, one member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, and one member appointed by the Senate Rules Committee. This bill would repeal the Independent Consumer Fuels Advisory Committee and instead would establish a 6-member Expert Advisory Committee to advise the Energy Commission and division, as provided. The bill would require 4 of the members of the committee to be appointed by the Governor, one member to be appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, and one member to be appointed by the Senate Rules Committee. The bill would, among other things, require all members of the committee to either hold an academic appointment in, or demonstrate expertise of, economics or business operations of the transportation fuels market, and would prohibit all members of the committee from having been employed by, contracted with, or received direct compensation from, a company that produces, refines, distributes, trades in, markets, or sells any petroleum product in the preceding 12 months. (2) Existing law requires the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency and labor and industry stakeholders, to consider ways to manage necessary refinery turnarounds and maintenance that would protect the health and safety of employees and the public, and minimize the impacts of maintenance-related production losses on fuel prices. Existing law authorizes the commission, by regulation, to impose requirements governing the timing of turnaround and maintenance. This bill would expressly authorize those regulations to include criteria that are required to be met before a refinery commences a turnaround or maintenance event, as provided. This bill would require the Energy Commission, in consultation with the Expert Advisory Committee, to consider the effects of refiners' inventories of fuel and feedstocks and blending components on the price of transportation fuels in California. The bill would authorize the Energy Commission, by regulation, to develop and impose requirements for refiners operating in the state to maintain minimum levels of inventories of refined transportation fuels meeting California specifications, including any feedstocks and blending components, as specified. This bill would impose an administrative civil penalty on a refiner or person who fails to comply with regulations adopted pursuant to the above-described authority and would authorize the Energy Commission to seek any form of injunctive or remedial relief to enforce compliance with those regulations, as provided. (3) Existing law requires the Energy Commission, on or before January 1, 2024, and every 3 years thereafter, to submit an assessment to the Governor and the Legislature that, among other things, identifies methods to ensure a reliable supply of affordable and safe transportation fuels in California, as provided. This bill, beginning with the first assessment submitted after January 1, 2025, would require that assessment to also include (A) an evaluation of California's future petroleum product import needs and identified steps that can be taken to ensure that marine infrastructure and port facilities will be adequate to accommodate the efficient movement of petroleum products, and, for those purposes, would require the Energy Commission to consult with specified entities, and (B) an evaluation of the effects on supplies of transportation fuels of state regulations that the Energy Commission identifies may be causing supply constraints, or for which the Energy Commission believes alternative compliance pathways should be considered by state agencies to mitigate potential impacts on supply.
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law generally authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to use prior authorization and other utilization review or utilization management functions, under which a licensed physician or a licensed health care professional who is competent to evaluate specific clinical issues may approve, modify, delay, or deny requests for health care services based on medical necessity. Existing law requires a health care service plan or health insurer, including those plans or insurers that delegate utilization review or utilization management functions to medical groups, independent practice associations, or to other contracting providers, to comply with specified requirements and limitations on their utilization review or utilization management functions. Existing law requires the criteria or guidelines used to determine whether or not to authorize, modify, or deny health care services to be developed with involvement from actively practicing health care providers. This bill would require the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance, by July 1, 2025, to issue instructions to health care service plans and health insurers to report specified information relating to prior authorization, as defined, including designated health care services (services) , items, and supplies subject to prior authorization and the percentage rate at which health care service plans, health insurers, or their delegated entities, approve or modify those services, items, and supplies. The bill would require health care service plans and health insurers to report that information to the relevant department by December 31, 2025, or as otherwise specified. The bill would require the relevant department to evaluate the reports received from the health care service plans and health insurers, and identify the services, items, and supplies most frequently approved by the plans or insurers or their delegated entities, as specified. The bill would require each department, after evaluating the reports received from health care service plans and health insurers, to identify, and by December 31, 2026, to publish a list of, the most frequently approved or modified services, items, and supplies, based on a prescribed threshold percentage rate. The bill would authorize the department to consider certain factors when determining the appropriateness of removing prior authorization for a specific health care service, item, or supply, regardless of its approval percentage rate. The bill would require the department to issue instructions to health care service plans and health insurers regarding, among other matters, the date by which the listed services, items, and supplies would no longer be subject to prior authorization, and how a plan or insurer could reinstate prior authorization upon a showing of good cause, as prescribed. Within 4 years from the cessation date of the prior authorization requirements, the bill would require each department to publish a report regarding the impact of the cessation of those requirements. The bill would authorize the departments to contract with a consultant with expertise in prior authorization procedures to assist with implementation of the bill, as specified. The bill would provide that it would not apply with respect to specified types of health care service plans including, but not limited to, specialized health care service plans, or to specialized health insurers, except as specified. The provisions would be repealed on January 1, 2032. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to ensure that specified procedures are performed in the investigation and prosecution of sexual abuse incidents, including, among others, that an employee must be terminated if an investigation confirms that the employee sexually abused an inmate. Existing law requires administrators to report criminal sexual abuse by staff to law enforcement authorities. This bill would require the department to monitor for 90 days an incarcerated person who reports sexual abuse, and the incarcerated person reported to have suffered the abuse, by a staff person at a department facility for possible retaliation. Existing law authorizes a defendant to submit to a sentencing court a petition for recall and resentencing when a defendant, who was under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of a specified offense for which the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole, has been incarcerated for at least 15 years. Existing law authorizes a court to consider specified factors when determining whether to resentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment with the possibility of parole including, among others, that the defendant has had no disciplinary actions for violent activities in the last five years in which the defendant was determined to be the aggressor. This bill would authorize a court to also consider if the defendant has been a victim of sexual abuse or sexual violence at any time during their incarceration when determining whether to resentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment with the possibility of parole. Existing law authorizes, when a defendant has been committed to the state prison or to a county jail for the commission of a felony, the court to recall the sentence and either reduce a defendant's term by modifying the sentence, or vacate the conviction and impose judgment on any necessarily included lesser offense or lesser related offense and, resentence the defendant to a reduced term. Existing law requires the court to consider, in recalling and resentencing pursuant to these provisions, postconviction factors, including, among others, evidence that circumstances have changed since the original sentencing so that continued incarceration is no longer in the interest of justice. Existing law states that a defendant is not entitled to relief from these provisions, and that a court is not required to respond to a defendant's requests for relief pursuant to these provisions. This bill would authorize, beginning on July 1, 2025, a defendant to file a petition for relief pursuant to these provisions, and would make that defendant entitled to a response from the court, if, among other things, the defendant is currently committed to the custody of the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the defendant currently has a minimum sentence of at least 15 years, and the application of the current sentencing rules of the Judicial Council and any changes in sentencing laws enacted since the defendant was last sentenced would make the defendant eligible for a reduced sentence if applied to the defendant. Existing law requires various civil actions to be brought within specified periods of time, but these periods of limitation are tolled for 2 years during the time that the person entitled to bring the action is imprisoned on a criminal charge for a term less than life. However, under existing law these provisions do not apply to an action brought against a public entity or public employee, as specified. This bill would require an action for sexual assault brought against a public entity or public employee by a person who is imprisoned on a criminal charge, or in execution under the sentence of a criminal court, to be tolled during the period of imprisonment and until one year after the release from actual custody.
Maddy summarySenate Resolution 120 formally recognizes October 2024 and every subsequent October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in California. This legislative measure does not create new laws or funding but serves to highlight the severity of domestic violence and the importance of support services for survivors across the state. The resolution underscores the need for community education and culturally responsive programs to address the high rates of intimate partner violence affecting diverse populations in California. By adopting this resolution, the Senate aims to encourage ongoing awareness and action to prevent domestic violence and assist those affected by it.
Existing law requires a refinery-related community air monitoring system to be installed near each petroleum refinery that meets certain requirements. Existing law requires the owner or operator of a petroleum refinery to develop, install, operate, and maintain a fence-line monitoring system in accordance with guidance developed by the appropriate air quality management district or air pollution control district. Existing law requires the air districts and the owners or operators of refineries to collect real-time data from those monitoring systems, maintain records of that data, and, to the extent feasible, provide to the public the data in a publicly accessible format. This bill would expand the application of these provisions to any "covered facility," defined to include refineries that produce gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, biofuel, lubricating oil, asphalt, petrochemical feedstock, or other similar products, and to include facilities with operations related to a refinery that are located on contiguous or adjacent properties. The bill would require the refinery-related community air monitoring system and the fence-line monitoring system to be updated or installed on or before January 1, 2028, after a 30-day public comment period, as specified. The bill would require the appropriate air district to establish pollutants for the monitoring systems to monitor and would include certain pollutants identified by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The bill would authorize the air district to exclude a pollutant for monitoring at those monitoring systems, as provided. The bill would require air districts, on a 5-year basis, to review the list of pollutants being measured and would authorize the air districts to revise the list, as provided. The bill would require the air districts and the owners and operators of covered facilities to maintain records of the data collected from those systems for at least 5 years and would require the owners and operators to post online, and to notify the public of the availability of, quarterly reports containing certain information. The bill would require owners and operators of covered facilities to notify the air district and the public, as provided, as quickly as possible of any exceedances of specified pollutant thresholds. The bill would require the owners or operators of covered facilities, within 24 hours of a fence-line monitoring system detecting an exceedance of those thresholds, to initiate a root cause analysis and to determine appropriate corrective action, as provided. The bill would require the owners or operators of covered facilities to conduct third-party audits of its fence-line monitoring system, as provided, to ensure the accuracy of the system. Because the bill would impose additional duties on air districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Under existing law, a violation of requirements for stationary sources or any rule, regulation, permit, or order of the state board or of an air district is a crime. Because this bill would impose the monitoring systems requirement on owners or operators of covered facilities engaging in other types of refining processes and would impose additional requirements on owners and operators of covered facilities, a violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.
Existing law generally requires an online marketplace to require a high-volume third-party seller on the online marketplace to make certain disclosures. Existing law requires an online marketplace to suspend future sales activity of a high-volume third-party seller that is not in compliance with those information sharing requirements, as specified. Existing law imposes certain information retention and security requirements on an online marketplace and prohibits specified uses of that information. Existing law generally defines a "high-volume third-party seller," for purposes of the above-described provisions, as a third-party seller who has entered into a certain number of consumer product sales transactions through an online marketplace for which payment is processed by the online marketplace, as specified. Existing law defines an "online marketplace," for purposes of those provisions, as a consumer-directed, electronically accessed platform that includes features that allow for, facilitate, or enable, and are used by, a third-party seller to engage in the sale, purchase, payment, storage, shipment, or delivery of a consumer product and that has a contractual relationship with consumers governing their use of the platform to purchase consumer products. This bill would revise the types of transactions that qualify a third-party seller as a "high-volume third-party seller," for those purposes. Specifically, the bill would remove the conditions that the transactions be made through an online marketplace and that the online marketplace process the payment and, instead, would add the condition that the transactions were made utilizing an online marketplace. The bill would also revise the definition of "online marketplace" by removing the conditions that the above-described features be used by third-party sellers, and that the platform have the above-described contractual relationship with consumers. Existing law requires a high-volume third-party seller to disclose and certify to the online marketplace certain identification, contact, and payment information of the seller, as specified. This bill would require an online marketplace to establish and maintain a policy prohibiting the sale of stolen goods on the marketplace and to provide a mechanism to notify the marketplace of the sale of stolen goods, as specified. The bill would require an online marketplace to alert local, regional, or state law enforcement agencies in California if it knows or should know that a third-party seller is selling or attempting to sell stolen goods to a California resident, except as specified. Existing law requires a person or entity who violates the above-described provisions to be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $10,000 for each violation and reasonable attorney's fees and costs and to be subject to preventive relief, as specified. Existing law limits recovery and relief to a civil action brought by the Attorney General, as specified. This bill would expand recovery and relief to a civil action brought by a district attorney in any county, a city attorney in any city or city and county, or a county counsel in any county. The bill would make these changes operative on July 1, 2025.