A Northern Virginia federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction blocking a new law, SB 854, that limits the time children under 16 can spend on social media.
NetChoice, a tech lobbying group whose members include Meta, Google, X, Reddit, and Netflix, first petitioned for the injunction in November, claiming the law violated the First Amendment. The lobbying group also highlighted some of the potential cybersecurity issues surrounding minors sharing their personal data with tech firms for age verification, arguing it could create “a honeypot for cybercriminals and predators.”
The law, which took effect on Jan. 1, forces online platforms to limit a minor’s use of social media platforms to one hour per day, per service or application, and “use commercially reasonable methods” to determine if users are under 16. If a child wants to increase their daily limit, the platform must obtain parental consent. The law also makes it illegal to use data from under-16s for marketing or profiling.
“The Court recognizes the commonwealth’s compelling interest in protecting its youth from the harms associated with the addictive aspects of social media,” said US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles. “However, it cannot infringe on First Amendment rights, including those of the same youth it aims to protect.”
Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said laws requiring age verification “actually make everyone less safe and more prone to data breaches,” adding that “we are seeing this in real time as countries around the world have started mandating similar privacy-destroying age-verification regimes.”
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Last year, NetChoice won permanent injunctions against similar laws in Louisiana and Ohio. However, a year ago, a federal judge upheld a California law that bans tech companies from serving addictive feeds to minors, despite a legal challenge from the lobbying group.
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