Crimes: Sexual Exploitation of a Child (SB 1276, End Child Exploitation Act)

Record US-CA-13 · California Senate Bill 1276

Issued by: California State Legislature; signed by Governor Gavin Newsom
Jurisdiction: California (US)
Level · region: Sub-national · North America
Country: United States
Published / adopted: 2026-09-10
Language: English
Official identifier: California Senate Bill 1276

Summary

Known as the End Child Exploitation Act, it updates California law on the sexual exploitation of children for livestreaming and AI. It extends the crime of sexual exploitation of a child to anyone who downloads, streams or accesses through electronic or digital media a depiction of a person under 18 engaged in sexual conduct, exempting a child who only viewed a video stream. It adds digitally altered or AI-generated matter depicting a person under 18 engaged in sexual conduct to the definition of sexual exploitation in the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, so that mandated reporters must report knowledge or reasonable suspicion of such material.

Safety topics

child safetydeepfakes & synthetic media

Scope

Borderline scope The extractor's scope_note is right: a child-exploitation law that brings AI-generated material into mandated reporting.

Open question

scope_note contains research-process language (The extractor); move it to verification.note Issue #140

The record shows its last checked values until a maintainer decides; the decision is recorded in its history.

Status notes

Signed on 10 Sep 2026 in a 13-bill child online-safety package that also included SB 1119 (US-CA-08), SB 867 and AB 1159. Passed the Senate 33-0 and was heard by the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection on 1 Jul 2026. Sponsored by the Los Angeles City Attorney. California's Penal Code already covered digitally altered or AI-generated child sexual abuse material after SB 1381 (2024); this law aligns the reporting definition in the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act with the criminal statute.

Sources

Open the official source https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB1276

Secondary source: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/10/governor-newsom-signs-the-strongest-child-safety-chatbot-and-social-media-laws-in-the-nation/

Local copy

Partial (secondary source only). The official source could not be downloaded (HTTP 403 Forbidden); only the secondary source was saved. The browser retry also failed (Browser could not load the page: Page.goto: Timeout 45000ms exceeded.). Last attempt 2026-10-17 23:06:31 UTC

Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/US-CA-13/2026-10-17/secondary.html

Retrieved 2026-10-17 22:16:28 UTC

SHA-256 60116b9c4e5d0e1b89c6643b03f83dc94938c221befcbf5bc87c3d52c409234c

Verification

Another official source, such as an announcement by the issuer, confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · alternative-official-url-fetched

Recheck of 18 Oct 2026: the official bill page and text on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov could not be stored again (HTTP 403 on 14, 16 and 17 Oct 2026; the browser retries timed out). Stored in this run: the Governor's release of 10 Sep 2026 (gov.ca.gov, the record's secondary source), which lists 'SB 1276 by Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) – Crimes: sexual exploitation of a child' among the bills signed that day and is the only stored source for the signature and its date; the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection analysis (hearing 1 Jul 2026) of the bill as introduced on 20 Feb 2026 (apcp.assembly.ca.gov), on which the summary and notes rest; and Senator Rubio's release of 2 Sep 2026 (sd22.senate.ca.gov), which lists 'SB 1276 – End Child Exploitation Act' among her bills sent to the Governor. Amendments made after the introduced version cannot be seen. The chaptered text, the chapter number (a collector's lead gave chapter 192) and the operative date are not in a stored source. The status follows California's general rule that a non-urgency statute takes effect on 1 January after enactment, which is not in a stored source.

Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 6 field(s) supported, fixes applied to scope_note.

History

2026-10-18verification.level: A → B — level computed from the evidence by tools/pipeline.py2026-10-18-recheck-north-america-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-18scope_note: Not an AI-specific law: it amends California's crime of sexual exploitation of a → The extractor's scope_note is right: a child-exploitation law that brings AI-gen — pipeline run 2026-10-18-recheck-north-america-2 (recheck), candidate US-CA-132026-10-18-recheck-north-america-2 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-14related: [] → [{"id": "US-FL-08", "slug": "florida-hb-1159-2026-sexual-offences-and-generated- — two-way link to US-FL-08 added in run 2026-10-14-discover-codes-us-fl2026-10-14-discover-codes-us-fl · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2026-10-14Added to the register — found in pipeline run 2026-10-14-discover-leads-2026-10-14, candidate C035 (US-CA/legislature)2026-10-14-discover-leads-2026-10-14 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

Florida HB 1159 (2026): sexual offences and generated CSAM Florida (US) · In force

Citation

California State Legislature; signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Crimes: Sexual Exploitation of a Child (SB 1276, End Child Exploitation Act) [California Senate Bill 1276]. 2026-09-10. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB1276. Status: Adopted, not yet in force; verified 2026-10-18 (level B). Local copy archive/US-CA-13/2026-10-17/secondary.html retrieved 2026-10-17 22:16:28 UTC, SHA-256 60116b9c4e5d0e1b89c6643b03f83dc94938c221befcbf5bc87c3d52c409234c. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record US-CA-13.

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