The Kids Are All Rights: The Conflict between Free Speech and Youth Privacy Laws

In 2022, youth privacy legislative proposals began to boom across several states. From California's Age Appropriate Design Code Act to Utah's contentious Social Media Regulation Act and even to Louisiana’s HB 61 for online services contracts, states are introducing a full range of laws aimed at protecting minors' experiences online. To do so, they are deploying privacy tools coupled with standards for safety and mental health, putting the onus on companies to ensure they design with the "best interests" of young users in mind.

However, as evidenced by NetChoice's swiftly filed suit responding to the California AADC, a major legal debate around youth safety laws, focused on whether they conflict with free speech protections, is taking place. In district courts across the country, these laws are being challenged at the intersection of privacy rights and rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The rubber is meeting the road now that court challenges are resulting in injunctions, most recently in a preliminary injunction of California's AADC ordered by Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The order temporarily blocks the AADC from going into effect, pending the ongoing battle over the merits of the case.