Mississippi social media law: Age verification and parental consent now mandatory on Facebook, Instagram, X

Economic Times

8 hours ago

Mississippi's new social media law now requires sites like Facebook, Instagram, and X to verify children's ages and get parental consent. NetChoice, a group of big tech companies, tried to stop it, saying it may limit online free speech. The Supreme Court denied their request, so the law is now active to protect children from harmful content online.
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A Mississippi law, making it mandatory for social media sites like Facebook, X, and Instagram to age verify children and take parental consent before allowing use, has come into effect for all its possible purposes after the Supreme Court denied relief to the trade group seeking to block its enforcement, reports said.The group of big tech companies—Dreamwidth, Meta, Nextdoor, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap Inc. (which owns Snapchat), X and YouTube—were all represented by a trade group called NetChoice, which had gotten a federal judge to block the law's implementation previously, as per the report by MSNBC.The US Court of Appeal then lifted the injunction. Which led NetChoice to seek emergency relief for its clients, stating that 'both minors and adults can access and engage in fully protected expression online, free from governmental interference.'The law, called the Walker Montgomery Protecting Children Online Act asked sites to formulate and implement methods to subvert exposure of harmful content to minors—citing an incident where a 16—year-old committed suicide after falling prey to a bogus sextortion attempt on Instagram.The State of Mississippi, represented by Attorney General Lynn Fitch, however, was of the firm view that the inunction on the law was uncalled for and hampered state's ability to protect children from predators, MSNBC reported. She also cited a Texan ruling where verification of sexual content before exposing it to children became mandatory, as reported by MSNBC.Though the Shadow bench of the High Court—which had its doubts over the constitutional validity of the law—had upheld the law, it didn't give specific comments on the First Amendment violation claims raised by NetChoice.Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the 5th circuit said that the law was possibly unconstitutional but as of now, NetChoice has failed to 'sufficiently demonstrate that the balance of harms and equities favors it at this time', as reported by MSNBC.The law requires sites like Facebook, Instagram, and X to check children's ages and get parental consent before allowing them to use the platforms.NetChoice is a group representing big tech companies that tried to block the law, saying it limits free online expression for minors and adults.