Google, Meta Platforms and TikTok sued California to block enforcement of a new state law intended to limit the risk of addicting children under age 16 to online platforms.
It also requires the deletion of children’s accounts with those features. Some critics accused California of overreaching by restricting children’s online access. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights advocacy group, called the law “a massive privacy and free speech nightmare. Many US states regulate children’s access to social media.
They said the law violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment’s free speech protections, as well as Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which broadly shields online platforms from liability over user content. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on September 10. Countries around the world have similar restrictions, including a ban in Australia on social media for children under 16.
The law, known as Assembly Bill 1709, prohibits those platforms from offering underage children “psychologically exploitative features” that could lead to compulsive use, such as providing personal recommendations and sending videos through autoplay features. He said children’s safety should be central to any discussion about technology, and California “will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk. In separate lawsuits on Wednesday, Google, Meta and TikTok said the law wrongly compels them to honour the state’s preferred means of presenting content to children, and substitutes the state’s judgment for that of parents.
Google filed its lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, California. Meta sued in San Francisco, and TikTok sued in Los Angeles.
