A first of its kind U.S. proposal to protect children online cleared the California Legislature Tuesday and was sent to the desk of Governor Gavin Newsom. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act will require social media platforms to implement guardrails for users under 18. The new rules will curb risks — such as allowing strangers to message children — and require changes to recommendation algorithms and ad targeting where minors are concerned. The bill was drafted following Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s 2021 congressional testimony about the negative effects of social media on children’s mental health.

If Newsom signs the bill, it will take effect in 2024. The California Senate passed the bill by a vote of 33 to 0. In May, the Assembly sent the bill hurtling forward with a 76-0 vote. The legislation was introduced in February by Democratic Assembly member Buffy Wicks and Republican Jordan Cunningham.

The pending AB-2273 “aims to hold online services to the same kinds of basic safety standards as the automobile industry — essentially requiring apps and sites to install the digital equivalent of seatbelts and airbags for younger users,” reports The New York Times.

“The digital ecosystem is not safe by default for children. We think the Kids’ Code, as we call it, would make tech safer for children by essentially requiring these companies to better protect them,” Wicks told NYT.

If enacted, “this bill’s reach would extend well beyond California, impacting tech companies nationwide,” writes Politico, explaining “it would target online spaces often visited by children under 18, with tight guidelines on the collection and sharing of kids’ personal information and features to protect them from predators and lessen the risk of addiction and other harms.”

The state rules “could prompt some online services to introduce nationwide changes, rather than treat minors in California differently,” NYT says.

The California statute follows similar legislation in the UK, where regulators enacted comprehensive online protections for minors in 2021. Called the Children’s Code, the British effort came into force in September 2020, aiming at what NYT calls “baseline safety standards, like preventing adult strangers from contacting children or disabling social media features that could show a child’s exact location on a map to other users.”

California’s proposed law is part of a national movement to force Big Tech to more stringently protect children and consumers overall.

The Washington Post says passage of the legislation “would make the state a national leader in setting protections for kids and teens online,” couching it as “part of a growing push nationwide to hold tech companies like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat accountable for how their services may affect children’s mental health and safety.”

The California bill’s passage is likely to renew calls for federal action. “Similar efforts in Washington are dragging amid disagreement between House and Senate lawmakers over whether to prioritize expanding protections for children or advancing privacy safeguards for all consumers,” WaPo writes.