The law requires social media sites to verify and track the ages of all users in the state.
The US Supreme Court recently chose not to intervene in the enforcement of a Mississippi state law that requires social media sites to verify and track user ages. As a result, unofficial Twitter offshoot Bluesky will go dark in the state.
“Starting today, if you access Bluesky from a Mississippi IP address, you’ll see a message explaining why the app isn’t available”, wrote the company in a statement published online. “This block will remain in place while the courts decide whether the law will stand.”
The Mississippi law says that social media sites must verify the ages of new users and obtain parental consent before allowing kids under 18 to make an account.
The sites must also “make commercially reasonable efforts to develop and implement a strategy” that insulates known minors from harmful material and behavior, such as online bullying, sexual exploitation, or anything that may encourage substance abuse.
The law exempts a number of services, including those whose primary function is to provide access to “online video games”, so Steam is unaffected—but you can bet that Valve and every other big gaming company is closely watching the development of internet age verification laws in the US, UK, and elsewhere.
