ASSEMBLY BUDGET COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
[First Reprint]
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
ASSEMBLY, No. 4015
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JUNE 28, 2026
The Assembly Budget Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 4015 (1R) ACS.
As amended, the substitute, which is designated as the “New Jersey Kids Code Act” and is to be cited as the “New Jersey Age-Appropriate Design Code,” requires a covered online service provider to implement certain measures to protect minors’ online privacy. Under the substitute, a covered online service provider is required to provide a covered child or covered minor with default settings for safeguards at the option or level that provides the highest protection available for the safety of the covered child or covered minor and is prohibited from reducing or prompting a covered child or covered minor to reduce certain privacy settings. The substitute also creates requirements and prohibitions concerning the collection and use of a covered child’s or covered minor’s personal data.
The substitute requires a covered online service provider to establish a prominent and accessible user interface to enable a covered child, covered minor, and the parent of a covered child or covered minor to report harms experienced by the covered child or covered minor on the online service. The substitute also establishes certain prohibitions for a covered online service provider concerning covered children and covered minors, including, but not limited to, prohibiting a covered online service provider from facilitating targeted advertising for certain products to a covered child or covered minor, sending notifications to covered children or covered minors at certain specified times, and using dark patterns.
Additionally, the substitute requires a covered online
service provider to provide a prominent and accessible mechanism for a covered
child or covered minor to request that the covered child’s or covered minor’s
account be unpublished or permanently deleted within a certain number of days
outlined in the substitute. The substitute also requires certain covered
online service providers to establish a
prominent and accessible user interface to enable a covered child, covered
minor, and the parent of a covered child or covered minor to customize the
types of media recommended to or blocked by the covered child or covered minor.
The substitute requires a covered online service provider to provide a prominent and constant real-time signal to a covered child or covered minor when precise geolocation information is being collected or used or the online activity of that covered child or covered minor is being monitored by any individual, including a parent of the covered child or covered minor. The substitute also requires a covered online service provider to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the covered online service provider’s use of a covered child’s or covered minor’s personal data and the design of a covered design feature do not result in compulsive use by a covered child or covered minor.
Under the substitute, a violation of the substitute’s provisions is to constitute an unlawful practice under the New Jersey consumer fraud act. The substitute also provides that a covered child or covered minor that is injured by a violation of the substitute’s provisions may bring a civil action against a covered online service provider and that the Attorney General or the parent of a covered child or covered minor that is injured by a violation of the substitute’s provisions may bring a civil action on behalf of the covered child or covered minor against the covered online service provider.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amended the substitute to:
(1) revise the definitions of “covered design feature,” “covered online service provider,” and “online service”;
(2) clarify that, when configuring the default privacy settings for a covered child or covered minor, a covered online service provider is not to display the content of a covered child’s or covered minor’s account, rather than prohibiting the online service provider from displaying the existence of the account;
(3) require a covered online service provider that collects a user’s personal data for purposes of age assurance, rather than age verification, to delete the personal data 15 days after determining, rather than verifying, the user’s age;
(4) require a covered online service provider to unpublish a covered child’s or covered minor’s account not later than 10 business days after submission of the request to unpublish and to permanently delete the covered minor’s account not later than 45 calendar days after submission of the request to permanently delete;
(5) provide that the obligations of a covered online service provider under the substitute apply with respect to each online service provided by the covered online service provider;
(6) provide that, in the event of a conflict between the substitute and one or more other laws of this State, the law that affords the greatest protection from harm to minors controls; and
(7) make technical changes.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Fiscal information for this bill is currently unavailable.