The RECLAIM Act—which requires adult sites that accept uploads to collect a sworn consent statement for every piece of content before it goes live in California—has been signed into law today as a component of the bill AB-1705.
The RECLAIM Act
Gavin Newsom signed the bill—which takes effect on January 1— today, October 5. Here’s how it works: before an upload, the uploader must give adult sites such as OnlyFans, Fansly, etc. an email address. Then they must certify, under penalty of perjury, three things: everyone shown was an adult when it was made, everyone agreed to be shown, and everyone agreed to the upload.
Sites must then verify the email address before allowing the upload and keep the statement and contact details for at least seven years. A person shown in the content against their will can sue the site and the uploader for up to $75,000 per violation, plus punitive damages and legal fees. Public prosecutors can also sue for $25,000 per violation. Moreover, each day non-compliant content stays up counts as a separate violation. Knowingly giving false information in the statement is an infraction with a $1,000 fine.
The bill passed unanimously, 39-0 in the Senate on August 20 and 78-0 in the Assembly four days later.
A Bipartisan Initiative
Written by Democrat Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Republican Diane Dixon, the legislation reflects a rare consensus between the two parties. “I’m proud to work on this critical legislation in a bipartisan way to ensure that the platforms profiting from this content can no longer hide behind anonymity and avoid accountability,” Bauer-Kahan stated via press release from her office launching the bill in February of this year.
Many in the industry see RECLAIM as redundant and potentially overreaching, pointing out that a similar law always exists: 18 U.S.C. § 2257 is a federal law that requires producers of commercial sexually explicit material to verify and record the legal name, date of birth, aliases, and government-issued photo ID of every performer.
Attorneys who spoke to XBIZ on the matter, say that the new law goes well beyond it and adult creators should be aware of the distinctions. While 2257 is aimed at producers, AB 1705 puts the duty on the website at the moment of upload.
Consent and Recordkeeping
“There is certainly some overlap with the compliance infrastructure that responsible adult operators already maintain under 18 U.S.C. § 2257 and existing consent/recordkeeping practices, but AB 1705 goes considerably further in several respects,” industry attorney Corey Silverstein, told XBIZ. “Section 2257 is principally an age-verification and recordkeeping regime applicable to producers of sexually explicit material. AB 1705 creates an additional consent-and-upload certification regime and places affirmative obligations directly on operators of websites accepting sexually explicit user-generated content.”
This is California’s second adult-platform law this fall. Last month, Newsom signed a separate law that makes platforms remove reported child abuse material within 48 hours. The authors’ launch release named AI deepfakes and Grok’s sexualized images as reasons for that bill.
