A U.K. announcement regarding the upcoming GOV.UK wallet “sent shockwaves through the sector,” digital verification companies said in a Tuesday letter to Peter Kyle, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology.
Trade association NetChoice asked the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee on Thursday to follow the lead of the decision in NetChoice v. Yost and order a preliminary injunction on a law that requires age verification before a person can access social media. The Yost case, decided Wednesday, enjoined an Ohio law requiring age verification on First Amendment grounds (see 2504160049).
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday vacated a preliminary injunction against Mississippi’s age-verification law and remanded the case to the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi, citing the recent ruling in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC that “reframed the analysis for facial challenges.” The 5th Circuit said that the district court in the Mississippi case “should have undertaken more detailed factual analysis” before finding that trade association NetChoice was likely to succeed on its merits.
The Oklahoma Senate Technology and Telecommunications Committee cleared a pair of social media bills Thursday, despite their sponsors admitting the legislation needs work before coming to the floor. One bill addresses cyberbullying while the other is about age-verification, which many states have addressed this year (see 2501170053).
Lawmakers in the state legislature approved the bipartisan Arkansas Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act Tuesday and the measure now heads to the governor's desk for signature. HB-1717 is modeled after the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) 2.0 (see 2503040037), and would ban tech companies from collecting, retaining and disclosing minors' data, except in a few situations.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) told a court Monday that the decision in NetChoice, LLC v. Griffin demonstrates the weakness of NetChoice's argument for a preliminary injunction against a law that requires age verification before accessing social media accounts. NetChoice urged the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee on April 1 to use the Griffin ruling (see 2504010044), to enjoin the law (see 2504020033).
A proposed committee substitute for a North Carolina bill aimed at creating social media protections for minors passed the House Commerce and Economic Committee Tuesday by voice vote and will now be referred to the Rules, Calendar and Operations of the House.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) announced a rule requiring commercial pornographic websites to verify the age of users on both the website itself and on the device being used to access the site, for what he calls a “first-in-the-nation” standard to safeguard children. However, the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) said Thursday that the technology for this doesn't exist, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) raised privacy concerns.
Despite claims that age-assurance methods for those younger than 18 are insufficient and inaccurate, that's not the case, the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) said in a white paper Tuesday. Age verification methods are just as accurate for minors as they are for adults, the organization argued.
In a lengthy hearing Tuesday in front of Vermont's House Commerce and Economic Committee, lawmakers weighed testimony from concerned parents, youth and other advocates of a kids code bill. However, the tech industry opposed the bill for privacy and First Amendment reasons.