But that was not the only attack on online freedom launched by California lawmakers last week. Newsom also signed the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act into law. This is arguably an even more troubling move than AB 587.

The Age-Appropriate Design Code Act aims to protect children from harmful online content, by insisting that children’s interests are prioritised when businesses are designing and developing their online services. This law effectively insists that all internet users should be treated like children.

After all, the law will apply to any business ‘likely to be accessed by a child’, or unable to establish the age of its consumers ‘with a reasonable level of certainty’ – which goes for most businesses. Businesses will therefore have to assume that the child, defined by the act as any individual under 18, is the default user.

This does not just mean, for example, that an online business’s privacy settings must be set at the highest level. This act goes well beyond the scope of traditional data-protection laws. It also means that businesses must ensure that they are not exposing their users to content deemed harmful, because those users might be children. This will affect traditional media outlets just as much as social-media platforms. They will all have to design their offerings accordingly, filtering out news and content that might be deemed harmful to children.