Supreme Court clears way for Mississippi law requiring parental consent to use social media
The Supreme Court cleared the way for now for a Mississippi law that requires age verification to use social media and parental consent before minors can create accounts, a setback for the technology group that challenged the measure.
The justices rejected arguments by a trade group representing some of the internet’s most powerful social media companies, which said the law presents “grave First Amendment harms” because it imposes burdens on teens and adults to access protected speech and to use a powerful tool for making their voices heard.
Mississippi, which passed the law after a tragedy involving a teen, argued the law imposed “modest” burdens on users and companies, and it requires only that sites “protect children from online harms that the State has power to regulate.” The law applies to people under 18.
As is common with cases decided on the court’s emergency docket, the justices did not explain their ruling, which allows the law to stay in effect while a legal fight plays out in the lower courts.
The justices concurred with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which paused a lower court’s block on the law. A federal judge in Mississippi issued the injunction after finding the law was probably unconstitutional.
Mississippi passed the law in 2024 after a 16-year-old was victimized by a sextortion scheme and took his own life. An overseas predator had created a fake identity on Instagram and enticed the teen to provide compromising material, before threatening to share it publicly if he did not pay $1,000. The FBI is investigating the case.
In addition to requiring “commercially reasonable efforts to verify” the age of users and parental consent for minors to create profiles, the law also mandates social media sites screen underage users from objectionable content including that dealing with self-harm, drugs and suicidal behavior.
NetChoice, which includes as its members Google, Reddit and Meta, sued to block the law. After legal wrangling, a federal district court in Mississippi issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law as it applied to nine social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Nextdoor, Pinterest and X. The 5th Circuit overturned that ruling in a one-sentence opinion, before the tech group appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
The decision is the second in a few months in which the justices have dealt with safeguards for young people using the web.
In June, the Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring users to verify their age to access porn sites. In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the majority rejected arguments by the porn industry that the restriction impinged on the First Amendment rights of users over 18.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, held the restriction had “only an incidental effect on protected speech.”
Last year, the high court rejected a Republican-led effort to restrict the Biden administration and federal agencies from pressuring social media companies to remove and place warning labels on social media posts officials considered misleading, or misinformation about covid and other topics. Conservatives accused the administration of censorship.
The high court also ordered lower courts to take a second look at Texas and Florida laws that would have prevented social media companies from removing certain political posts and accounts.
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