Law passed enabling actors to remove age from IMDb

The state of California has passed legislation that will enable actors and other film industry workers to remove their ages from the Internet Movie Database and other publicly accessible websites.

The Customer Records bill, numbered AB-1687, was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on 24 September and specifies that subscribers to a “commercial online entertainment employment service provider” can demand that age information be removed. The rationale is to “ensure that information … regarding an individual’s age will not be used in furtherance of employment or age discrimination.”

Actors union SAG-AFTRA had campaigned in favour of the bill, with the organisation’s president Gabrielle Carteris writing on 16 September: “Age discrimination is a major problem in our industry, and it must be addressed. SAG-AFTRA has been working hard for years to stop the career damage caused by the publication of performers’ dates of birth on online subscription websites used for casting like IMDb.”

Though the bill covers all occupations, its effect on actors has been the focus of reporting in the wake of Junie Hoang’s failed bid in 2013 to get her age removed from IMDb.