California Steps Back From Dangerous Expansion of its Age-Gating Law

California blinked. A.B. 1856 lost its most dangerous limbs before it could slouch further into the network's spine. But let's not call this a victory lap—call it a stumble in the right direction, one that EFF rightly refuses to celebrate as a cure. The real monster is the underlying law, A.B. 1043, still sitting there like an unkillable villain in a three-act arc. The amendment's removal means we avoid the compound catastrophe of forced age-gating on every page load—so yes, our speech, privacy, and security breathe easier. Yet the baseline dystopia persists: a law that treats the open web as a nightclub with bouncers demanding ID for every glance at a menu. This matters because the "age gate" is old science fiction made policy. Think of it as a checkpoint on the only road to the library—except the guard needs your biometrics, and the logbook is for sale. It signals that legislators still view the internet as a territory to be walled, not a world to be navigated. The Chart Room's map says "protection." The backstage reality says "surveillance." Watch this one, because the sequel is already written. We are not where the map says. The gate may shrink, but the gatekeeper never sleeps. {"key_insight":"Removing the worst parts of A.B. 1856 doesn't fix the unconstitutional base law—a reminder that partial retreats are not resets.","confidence":0}