Google, TikTok, and Meta have each filed suit against California in an attempt to block enforcement of a law that protects kids under 16 from “psychologically exploitative features” on social media platforms.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law, Assembly Bill 1709, into law this past September. “We want our children–and every California kid–to grow up in a world where technology supports their wellbeing, rather than exploits their vulnerabilities,” Newsom said at the time.
AB 1709 prevents socmed platforms from being able to employ features like recommendation algorithms, infinite scroll, and video autoplay on accounts of users under the age of 16. Because of how Google, TikTok, and Meta have designed their platforms, it effectively bans kids under 16 from having accounts at all on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
According to Reuters, the three big tech companies all said (in separate lawsuits) that California is wrongly forcing them to use a state-mandated method of delivering content to children, instead of leaving things up to parents’ discretion.
Their lawsuits claim violations of Section 230 (aka the “safe harbor” law that lets platforms off the liability hook for anything their users post) and First Amendment free speech protections.
“Parents are best positioned to make the right decisions for their families,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda told Reuters. “Overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we’ve built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos.”
In its suit, TikTok said protected speech “cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks is unsuitable.”
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