Late Tuesday night, a federal judge blocked tech lobby group NetChoice’s challenge to the recently passed California law, SB 976, which prohibits companies from providing “addictive services” to minors.
The effect of this decision is that starting from Wednesday, the companies WILL be prohibited from serving an addictive feed to a California-based user that they know is a minor, except with express parental consent. SB 976 defines a dependent feed as an algorithm that selects and recommends content to users based on their behavior rather than their explicit preferences.
From January 2027 onwards, companies will be required to use “age assurance techniques”, such as age estimation models, to determine whether a user is a minor and adjust their feed accordingly .
In November, NetChoice, whose members include Meta, Google and X, sued to enjoin SB 976 in its entirety, arguing that the law violated the First Amendment. The judge denied the request for a stay, but blocked other elements of the law, including a restriction on nightly notices to minors.
New York passed similar legislation in June.
