In a win for trade association NetChoice, on Thursday the U.S. District Court for Northern California granted a preliminary injunction against California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), which aims to protect the privacy and safety of children online. The injunction enjoins California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and his office from enforcing the act. Judge Beth Labson Freeman said the definition of coverage in CAADCA was content-based and violated the First Amendment.
Google slammed Meta this week for supporting state bills requiring app stores to verify users’ ages. However, an advocacy group for children online rejected the idea of a single best way to verify ages.
The Vermont Senate passed its age-appropriate design code legislation (S-69) Thursday by voice vote. It still needs approval from the House. Some Republicans objected to the bill during debate Wednesday (see 2503120045).
Washington state senators voted 36-12 Wednesday for a kids privacy bill (SB-5708).
Expect House Republicans to take up a Senate-passed deepfake porn bill “promptly,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Thursday (see 2503050017).
Judge Algenon Marbley for the U.S. District Court of Southern Ohio, peppered the state with questions about content neutrality Wednesday during oral argument in NetChoice v. Yost. The case concerns NetChoice's challenge of an Ohio age-verification law that requires websites targeting children younger than 18 to obtain parental consent before engaging in contracts with minors, among other things.
The U.S. District Court for Northern California on Thursday granted NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction against California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA) aimed at protecting the privacy and safety of children online. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) and his office are enjoined from enforcing the act.
Vermont Republicans objected to an age-appropriate design code bill (S-69) on the Senate floor Wednesday. State senators voted 25-5 to amend the bill as previously recommended by the Institutions Committee, and then voted by voice to move the bill to a third reading. That action procedurally sets up a final vote, expected Thursday.
The FTC’s proposed rule under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) includes some concerning language related to “indefinite” data retention, Commissioner Melissa Holyoak said Wednesday.
Despite originating as a way to protect children from harms in the digital world, age-verification practices have morphed into a serious risk to privacy and digital rights, Rindala Alajaji, legislative activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), wrote in a blog Friday. “What started as a misguided attempt to protect minors from ‘explicit’ content online has spiraled into a tangled mess of privacy-invasive surveillance schemes affecting skincare products, dating apps, and even diet pills, threatening everyone’s right to privacy."