Reporting mechanism: child sexual abuse material

Platforms must offer a prominent, usable reporting process, review certain reports by a person, act quickly on qualifying material, and keep reporters informed. The law also broadens coverage to include AI-generated or altered intimate images depicting minors.

What the law does ​

• Defines child sexual abuse material to include intimate visual depictions of identifiable minors, including digital forgeries.
• Requires covered platforms to provide a clear, conspicuous, reasonably accessible reporting tool without manipulative design features; any California user may report qualifying material hosted on the platform.
• Requires human review when reported material is neither matched to known child sexual abuse material through hashing nor already blocked.
• Requires platforms to permanently block qualifying reported material within 48 hours, make reasonable efforts to block duplicates, confirm actions within 72 hours, and issue a final determination within seven days, subject to a limited delay process.
• Requires platforms to restore the reporting tool if it becomes unavailable or nonfunctional.
• Authorizes public attorneys to seek daily civil penalties up to $250,000 and court orders compelling compliance; allows depicted individuals to seek damages and other relief.
• Requires Attorney General-collected penalties, after fees and costs, to go to the Survivor Support Fund.
• Treats a qualifying report as giving a platform knowledge for commercial-sexual-exploitation liability without requiring reports over four consecutive months.
• Requires platforms seeking the audit-based exemption from commercial-sexual-exploitation liability to submit biannual audits to the Attorney General and, on request, specified local public attorneys; those audits are confidential.

Who it affects ​

• Social media companies and platforms, excluding specified end-to-end encrypted messaging services and nonprofit-operated services.
• California users who report suspected child sexual abuse material.
• Minors and others depicted as minors in the material, including in AI-generated or altered images.
• The Attorney General and local public attorneys enforcing the law.

Context ​

Submitted platform audits are exempt from public disclosure to protect confidential and proprietary information.