Mississippi law requires age verification for all social media sites, not just adult ones. Justice Brett Kavanaugh finds that it’s ‘likely unconstitutional,’ but doesn’t think it should be blocked on appeal.
The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to block Mississippi’s social media law, effectively allowing it to go into effect while an appeal winds its way through the courts.
Mississippi’s House Bill 1126, enacted last year, requires social media platforms to verify a user’s age at sign-up and request consent from their parents if they are found to be a minor. Additionally, it requires platforms to «detect, block or prevent the distribution of unlawful, obscene or other harmful material to a known minor.»
It goes further than other age-verification laws enacted around the country in that it applies to all social media sites, not just porn sites, similar to a law that just went into effect in the UK.
In July 2024, District Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden blocked the law after NetChoice—a trade group that represents Meta, YouTube, and Snapchat—cited a possible violation of the First Amendment.
