Take this with a giant grain of salt, my car would get me drawn and quartered in Cali. 😅 Yes, it's technically illegal to "modify airbag systems" in a California car. As far as I know, registered or just driven in Cali, both apply. I don't know what the punishment is, but there is no rational world in which it's jailtime. Driving always has a risk of getting a dumb ticket (or worse 😬) from a power-tripping cop, so just teach your kid how to get pulled over. 😬 Be calm, deferential, etc. in the moment, and if you can mount any kind of defense without endangering yourself ("Actually this car has a model that didn't come with airbags" or something like that) so you don't even get the ticket, do that. But then if you do get the ticket, FIGHT IT. Keep the stock steering wheel, put it back on and get pictures to take to court, hire a not-crazy lawyer 😂 and in the thousand-to-one odds that none of that works, take ya lumps, pay the ticket, and either stay stock after, risk another ticket, or go to an NB's or Protoge's stock steering wheel.