Rob Bonta, the law’s only defendant, says his office will defend it
Google, Meta and TikTok filed separate lawsuits on Wednesday seeking to block enforcement of a new California law prohibiting social media platforms from offering children under 16 features that could lead to compulsive use.
Assembly Bill 1709 bars platforms from offering underage children “psychologically exploitative features” that could lead to compulsive use, such as providing personal recommendations and sending videos through autoplay. It also requires the deletion of children’s accounts that carry such features. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the measure on 10 September, saying children’s safety should be central to any discussion about technology and that California “will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk”. The law takes effect on 1 January 2027 unless a judge voids it or puts it on hold.
In the lawsuits, the companies said the law wrongly compels them to honor California’s preferred means of presenting content to children and substitutes the state’s judgment for that of parents. They said the law violates the first amendment free speech protections of the US constitution, as well as Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which broadly shields online platforms from liability over user content.
Google filed its lawsuit in federal court in San Jose. Meta sued in San Francisco, and TikTok sued in Los Angeles.
The office of Rob Bonta, the California attorney general and the law’s only defendant, said on Thursday it is reviewing the lawsuits. “Our office is committed to defending California’s commonsense laws to protect kids online,” the office said.
“Parents are best positioned to make the right decisions for their families,” said Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, on Thursday. “Overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we’ve built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos.” Google owns YouTube and is a unit of Alphabet.
In its lawsuit, Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said California cannot override its editorial judgments about how to curate and display billions of posts while leaving children free to spend unlimited time on other online platforms that offer similar services.
TikTok, a unit of China’s ByteDance, said protected speech “cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable”.
Other critics also accused California of overreaching. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights advocacy group, called the law “a massive privacy and free speech nightmare”.
The litigation adds to a widening legal and regulatory conflict over children and social media. Many US states regulate children’s access to social media platforms, and countries around the world have imposed similar restrictions, including a ban in Australia on social media for children under 16.
In August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18bn and limit teenagers’ use of Facebook and Instagram under agreements with nearly all US states, which accused the company of violating privacy and consumer protection laws. In the aftermath of whistleblower revelations that showed Meta was aware of the way its platforms harmed teens, the company launched a suite of teen safety tools aimed at giving parents more oversight, and it has previously used influencers to promote those features as an alternative to bans or limitations similar to Australia’s.
Google has come under separate scrutiny over its use of AI tools on school devices. On Thursday, parents in California filed a lawsuit against the company alleging their teenage daughter made plans to end her life after multiple interactions with AI mode on Google Search, which she accessed through her school-issued Google Chromebook. Google was also recently forced to backtrack on its decision to cut off a school or classroom’s access to Google Search if teachers or administrators decided not to enable the company’s other AI features for schools.
The three companies and Snapchat parent Snap still face thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts, municipalities and other government entities claiming they sought to addict children and caused a mental health crisis that resulted in such harms as anxiety, depression and suicide.