- Sources: bill text, bill status, Tom's Hardware, discussion
- Summary: AB 1856, titled "Age verification signals: software applications" and led by author Wicks, amends Civil Code sections 1798.500 through 1798.504, and section 1798.500(g)(2) states that operating system provider does not mean a person or entity that distributes an operating system or application under license terms permitting a recipient to copy, redistribute, and modify the software. That is a test on license terms, and the bill names no license anywhere in its text, so the widely repeated framing that GPL, MIT, BSD and Apache software is exempt does not come from the bill. The legislature's status page lists the measure as passed, recording a Senate third reading passed 39 to 0 on 2026-08-26 and Senate amendments concurred in 69 to 0 on 2026-08-27, sending it to engrossing and enrolling, so it has cleared both houses and is not yet enrolled, chaptered, or signed. Section 1798.500(e)(2) separately excludes stores that distribute extensions, plug-ins or add-ons running exclusively inside a host application, and section 1798.503 sets penalties of 2,500 dollars per affected child for a negligent violation and 7,500 dollars for an intentional one, enforced only by the Attorney General.
- Why it matters: Anyone distributing an operating system in California has to apply a functional license-terms test to their own license before the Digital Age Assurance Act takes effect on 2027-01-01, and the carve-out reaches no further than the operating system provider definition.
- Follow-up: The bill sits at engrossing and enrolling after unanimous passage in both houses, so the signature or veto and the chaptered text are what remain to track.
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