Reporting mechanism: child sexual abuse material.

Assembly Members Krell and Wicks propose substantial changes to California's oversight of child sexual abuse material on social media platforms, expanding reporting requirements and strengthening enforcement mechanisms. The legislation modifies how platforms must respond to user reports, requiring clear reporting tools, mandatory hash matching, and human review when automated systems cannot verify content.

The bill removes the requirement that reporting users be depicted in the material they report, while mandating that reported content show individuals depicted as minors. Social media platforms must implement a hash matching process for all reports and ensure human review when automated matching fails to identify child sexual abuse material. Platforms face a 30-day deadline to address reports, with a possible 30-day extension for circumstances beyond their control.

Under the amended provisions, social media companies that fail to maintain functional reporting systems face civil penalties up to $250,000 per day. The legislation also establishes liability to depicted individuals, with statutory damages ranging from $75,000 to $250,000 per violation based on platform compliance with specific requirements, including participation in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Take It Down service. To maintain exemptions from certain liabilities, platforms must undergo semi-annual third-party audits of their systems and publicly release findings within 90 days, subject to trade secret redactions.

The amendments replace internal audit requirements with mandatory third-party reviews focused on detecting platform features that could enable commercial sexual exploitation. Companies must address identified risks within 30 days and provide audit results to board members and the public to maintain liability protections. These changes aim to increase transparency while preserving platforms' ability to protect proprietary information.