BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1687
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1687 (Calderon)
As Amended May 5, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Arts |6-1 |Chu, Hadley, Levine, |Obernolte |
| | |Low, Medina, Nazarian | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Privacy |11-0 |Chau, Wilk, Baker, | |
| | |Calderon, Chang, | |
| | |Cooper, Dababneh, | |
| | |Gatto, Gordon, Low, | |
| | |Olsen | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Prohibits a commercial online entertainment employment
service provider, as defined, that enters into an agreement to
provide certain employment services from publishing or sharing
information about the subscriber's age, and would require the
provider to remove the subscriber's age information from any
Internet Web site under the provider's control, if requested by
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the subscriber. Specifically, this bill:
1)Provides that a commercial online entertainment employment
service provider (Web site) that enters into a contractual
agreement to provide employment services to an individual for
a subscription payment shall not, upon request by the
subscriber:
a) Publish or make public the subscriber's date of birth or
age information; or
b) Share the subscriber's date of birth or age information
with any Internet Web sites for the purpose of publication.
2)Requires the Web site to remove the subscriber's date of birth
and age information from public view on all Web sites under
its control within 5 day upon request by the subscriber.
3)Declares that a commercial online entertainment employment
service provider that permits members of the public to upload
or modify Internet content on its own Internet Web site or any
Internet Web site under its control without prior review by
that provider shall not be deemed in violation of this section
unless first requested by the subscriber to remove age
information.
4)Defines the following terms for purposes of this section:
a) "Commercial online entertainment employment service
provider" means a person or business that owns, licenses,
or otherwise possesses computerized information, including
but not limited to age and date of birth information, about
individuals employed in the entertainment industry,
including television, films, and video games, and that
makes the information available to the public or potential
employers.
b) "Payment" means a fee in exchange for advertisements,
or any other form of compensation or benefit.
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c) "Provide employment services" means to post resumes,
photographs, or other information about a subscriber when
one of the purposes is to provide information about the
subscriber to a prospective employer.
d) "Subscriber" means a natural person who enters into a
contractual agreement with a commercial online
entertainment employment service provider to receive
employment services for a subscription payment.
5)Declares that the purpose of the bill is to ensure that
information obtained on a Web site regarding an individual's
age will not be used in furtherance of employment or age
discrimination.
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "Age discrimination in
employment is against both federal and state law. In California
the relevant statutes are the California Fair Employment and
Housing Act (FEHA) and the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Sadly,
despite these laws age discrimination continues to exist and is
facilitated through public distribution of potential job
applicant's birth and age information via commercial online
employment service providers.
"Under California's FEHA, an employer is generally prohibited
from asking the age of a job applicant until a bone fide offer
of employment is made. However, since the advent of the
internet and social media, employment referral Web sites
designed for the use of casting professionals and others have
provided access online to birthdate information which would be
illegal for employers to seek in hard copy. Once having this
information, they may discriminate against the job seeker on the
basis of age without it being traced."
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This bill applies only where there is a contractual relationship
between a Web site and an individual subscriber to host
information about the subscriber for a fee. Therefore, this
bill would apply to California-based businesses as well as
out-of-state businesses that have subscribers in California. It
would not apply to Web sites such as Wikipedia, which may post
publicly available information about an artist, such as age and
date of birth, but do not offer paid subscriptions or employment
services to artists.
However, this bill does specifically prohibit a commercial
online entertainment employment service provider from sharing a
subscriber's date of birth or age with public Web sites, such as
Wikipedia, if the subscriber makes a request to the provider not
to share this information. This provision is important because
while birth records are public records, many artists use a
pseudonym or stage name rather than their birth name, so in fact
their true name, age and date of birth are not readily
accessible to the public.
Please see Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism, and
Internet Media analysis for a full discussion of the measure.
Analysis Prepared by:
Dana Mitchell / A.,E.,S.,T., & I.M. / (916)
319-3450
FN: 0002864
AB 1687
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