A Louisiana law that would have required social media platforms to verify the ages of their users has been blocked by a judge. The law, known as Safe Online Child Interactions and Age Limits, was passed in 2023 and requires Meta, Reddit, Snap, YouTube Discord and others to implement age verification and parental control features.
The decision came just days before the law, which technically took effect in the summer, was to begin taking effect. In his decision, Judge John W. DeGravelles wrote that the law’s “age-verification and parental-consent requirements are overbroad and less inclusive,” and that its definition of “social media platform” was “vague.”
The decision was a victory for NetChoice, a lobbying group that represents the tech industry and which has challenged a growing number of age verification laws around the world. The group had argued that the law was unconstitutional and posed a threat to safety and security.
In a statement after the ruling, the group pointed to the “massive privacy risks” posed by the Louisiana law and others like it. “Louisiana’s law would have done much more than chill speech,” said Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center. “This would have created a major privacy risk for real-time players, such as Louisianans, in countries without the First Amendment, such as the UK.”
The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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