SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) — Artificial intelligence is having a better influence on our lives and quite a few new legal guidelines in California purpose to ensure AI doesn’t grow to be a detriment.
They’re simply among the tons of of recent legal guidelines taking impact Jan. 1, 2025.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
(SB 926) Deepfakes
Makes it a criminal offense to create and distribute sexually express photographs of an actual particular person which are artificially generated however made to look genuine with the aim of inflicting that particular person emotional misery.
(SB 981) Sexually Specific Photos
Requires that social media platforms set up a mechanism for customers who’re California residents to report sexually express photographs that had been created or altered digitally however made to look genuine. Social media firms should take down the content material whereas they examine the criticism.
(AB 1836 & 2602) Digital Likeness
Protects deceased actors and performers from having their picture, likeness or voice reproduced with out authorization by synthetic intelligence. The regulation requires consent from the actor’s property earlier than their likeness could be digitally replicated. An analogous regulation (AB 2602) permits performers to again out of present contracts if the language is obscure sufficient to permit studios to digitally clone their picture or voice sooner or later with out expressed consent.
ENTERTAINMENT
(SB969) Leisure Zones
Permits native governments to create leisure zones the place bars and eating places can promote alcoholic drinks that clients can drink on public streets and sidewalks. It replaces a regulation that solely allowed outdoors distributors to promote alcohol at festivals and parades. An analogous regulation that took impact in January of 2024 allowed San Francisco to arrange leisure zones to enhance enterprise at brick and mortar bars and eating places.
(AB 1775) Cannabis Cafes
Cannabis dispensaries are about to get livelier. The regulation will enable licensed cannabis retailers to arrange and promote meals and drinks at newly created cafes or lounges. Which means clients can purchase and devour cannabis on the enterprise whereas they eat a meal or watch a dwell efficiency.
ONLINE
(SB 764) Baby Vloggers
Mother and father or guardians who earn cash by posting on-line movies that options their kids should put aside a proportion of their earnings in a belief account that advantages the minor. Mother and father should hold detailed logs of how a lot cash they earned from every put up and what number of minutes their kids appeared within the video. Kids can sue mother and father that fail to comply with the regulation.
(AB 1979) Doxxing
Permits victims of doxing to sue their aggressors for as much as $30,000 in damages. Doxxing is when somebody shares private data like cellphone numbers, addresses or delicate supplies about another person with the intent to hurt or embarrass them. A survey by SafeHome.org discovered that 11 million People have been victims of doxing.
HOUSING
(SB 611) Hire Checks
Prohibits landlord from charging tenants a payment in the event that they pay their lease or safety deposit by examine. Beginning in April, landlords can even have to offer renters with a written assertion in the event that they cost a safety deposit greater than the usual.
(AB 2347) Evictions
Doubles the present deadline that tenants have to answer an eviction discover to 10 days. Beneath California regulation, if a tenant doesn’t reply to an eviction discover throughout the required time they lose the case robotically. Advocates say this may give renters more time to hunt authorized recommendation.
(SB 450) Housing Developments
Makes it simpler to transform single-family houses into duplexes and fourplexes by eradicating loopholes utilized by some native governments to decelerate conversions. The brand new regulation requires native governments to answer housing conversion purposes inside 60 days and bars native governments from denying an software to separate up quite a bit primarily based on the visible influence to the group.
CONSUMERS
(AB 2426) Digital Items
Requires sellers of on-line merchandise like digital motion pictures, music, books or video video games to reveal whether or not the buyer is buying unrestricted possession or a revocable license. Sellers are usually not allowed to make use of the phrases “purchase” or “buy” if the buyer is just receiving a license to entry the digital good. It isn’t clear if the regulation applies to non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
(SB 1217) Pet Insurance coverage
Requires pet insurance coverage suppliers to be more clear about whether or not their coverage premiums are primarily based on the age of the pet or the place the pet lives, and if their insurance policies exclude pre-existing circumstances, hereditary problems, congenital anomalies or persistent circumstances.
(AB 2863) Computerized Renewals
Requires subscription companies to get clear consent from a buyer for computerized renewals and ship annual reminders in regards to the computerized renewal or steady service. The regulation, which takes impact on July 1st additionally makes it simpler to cancel a subscription both on-line or by phone.
(AB 2017 & SB 1075) Overdraft Charges
Limits the overdraft charges that banks and credit score unions can cost. The regulation prohibits monetary establishments from charging a buyer a payment for non-sufficient funds if the transaction was declined instantaneously. Beginning in 2026, credit score unions could be prohibited from charging an overdraft payment in extra of $14.
(SB2202) Cleansing Charges
Requires short-term rental like Airbnb to reveal if there will probably be any extra charges or prices that will probably be added if the shopper fails to carry out sure cleansing duties on the finish of their keep. The regulation takes impact on July 1, 2025.
HEALTH
(AB 1817 & AB2771) Chemical substances in Cosmetics
Bans using PFAS in clothes, textiles and cosmetics. PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) can result in liver injury, thyroid illness, reproductive issues and most cancers. California could be the primary state to impose a ban on PFAS, that are already prohibited within the European Union.
One other regulation taking impact in 2025 bans the manufacture or sale of beauty merchandise with 11 different chemical substances, together with formaldehyde, mercury and methylene glycol.
(SB 540) Cannabis Well being Warnings
Requires the state well being division to create brochures or flyers that specify the dangers related to cannabis use. The paperwork should be displayed at cannabis retailers by March 1st.
(SB 729) Infertility Remedies
Beginning on July 1, 2025, medical health insurance plans are required to cowl the prognosis and remedy of infertility, together with in vitro fertilization (IVF). Non secular employers are excluded from the requirement.
CRIME AND SAFETY
(AB 1394) Sexual Exploitation
Holds social media firms like Meta, Instagram and Tik Tok chargeable for photographs of an individual that seem on sexual exploitation movies or photographs posted on their platforms. Victims of kid intercourse trafficking can sue these firms for as much as $4 million in the event that they knowingly facilitated the distribution of those photographs. The brand new regulation additionally requires social media platforms to ascertain a course of for intercourse abuse victims to report movies or photographs that embrace them. Corporations have 36 hours to take the pictures down from their platforms.
(SB 1414) Intercourse Solicitation
Makes it a felony to solicit a minor below the age of 16 for intercourse. If the minor is 16 or 17, the crime could be upgraded to a felony if the teenager is a sufferer of trafficking. The regulation penalizes anybody paying for intercourse with a minor even when the sexual act by no means occurred.
(SB 428) Restraining Orders
Permits employers to acquire a short lived restraining on behalf of an worker who has suffered harassment. The worker can select to not be named within the restraining order petition. A court docket can deny the order if it will prohibit speech or actions protected by the structure or labor regulation.
(AB 1978) Sideshows & Road Racing
Governor Newsom signed a number of legal guidelines that impose stricter penalties for individuals taking part in sideshows and road racing. The legal guidelines would make it simpler for regulation enforcement to arrest sideshow contributors and impound autos for unlawful actions taking place on streets, highways or parking heaps.
(AB 1960) Smash & Seize Robberies
Creates stiffer penalties for these concerned in smash-and-grab robberies. If the crime triggered more than $50,000 in injury to a property, the court docket can impose a further sentence of 1 12 months. Extra years could be added to a sentence if the property loss is greater.
EMPLOYMENT
Minimal Wage
California’s minimal wage will improve to $16.50 per hour for all employers. The rise is tied to inflation. Quick meals employees and healthcare facility employees have the next minimal wage.
(AB 2123) Paid Household Go away
Permits an worker to take paid household go away with out utilizing accrued trip time. Beforehand employers might require employees to take as much as 2 weeks of trip time earlier than they might entry California’s Paid Household Go away Program. The regulation applies to staff that must take go away from work to take care of a sick member of the family, bond with a brand new minor youngster or as a result of a navy member of the family is on energetic obligation.
(SB 988) Freelance Employees
Requires employers that rent freelance employees for skilled companies price more than $250 to offer a contract in writing that features data on the work that will probably be carried out and cost data. Employers should pay the freelance employees throughout the date specified within the contract or no later than 30 days after the work is accomplished.
(AB 1815) Hairstyles Discrimination
Expands protections in opposition to racial discrimination by widening the definition of race to incorporate traits reminiscent of hairstyles and hair textures which are related to sure races.
(SB 399) Necessary Conferences
Bans employers from requiring that employees attend necessary conferences regarding union organizing, in any other case often known as ‘captive viewers’ conferences. Additionally prohibits employers from requiring its employees attend conferences or take part in communications whose main goal is to precise the employer’s stance on political issues or spiritual leanings. Employers who ignore the regulation can face a $500 penalty per worker for every violation.
(SB 1100) Driver’s License
Employers would not be allowed to require a driver’s license in job postings until the employer moderately expects the job operate to incorporate driving and taking alternate transportation could be a detriment in journey time and price to the employer.
EDUCATION
(AB 1780) Legacy Admissions
Bans legacy admissions for college kids making use of to a non-public non-profit college in California. Universities like Stanford and USC would not be allowed to keep in mind whether or not a scholar applicant has ties to a donor or an alumnus. The regulation takes impact in September, so it doesn’t apply to present candidates for the autumn 2025 faculty 12 months.
(AB 1821) Native People
Requires Okay-12 public colleges within the state to show in regards to the remedy and views of Native People in the course of the Spanish colonization of California and the Gold Rush durations.
STATE SYMBOLS
A number of legal guidelines have established official state symbols, together with the Dungeness crab because the official state crustacean (AB 1797), the banana slug because the official state slug (AB 1859) and the shell of the black abalone because the official state seashell (AB 2504).
MISCELLANEOUS
(SB 1174) Voter ID Necessities
Prohibits native governments in California from requiring voters to current identification with a purpose to vote. The regulation is in response to an ordinance handed in Huntington Seaside that allowed town to confirm voter eligibility by way of IDs.
(AB 1810) Menstrual Merchandise
Requires state prisons or jails in California to offer incarcerated individuals with free menstrual merchandise with out the inmate having to ask for them. Earlier than this regulation, inmates needed to ask for sanitary pads or tampons, which prison justice advocates say allowed jail safety to withhold menstrual merchandise as a type of punishment and oppression.
(AB 3162) Octopus Farming
California turns into the second state to make it unlawful to boost octopuses in farms with the intent to promote them for human consumption. The regulation additionally bars companies from promoting octopuses that got here from octopus farms. The regulation nonetheless permits for the fishing of octopuses so long as it doesn’t exceed the day by day restrict.
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