The Kids Code Coalition released the following statement regarding today’s favorable opinion for the California Attorney General’s office in the NetChoice v Bonta lawsuit that has delayed implementation of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act for years. The opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit demonstrates that Big Tech companies’ strategy of filing overbroad and largely unsupported facial challenges to laws that provide critical safety and privacy protections for children will not succeed:
“After being delayed for years by Big Tech obstructionism, this promising decision means parts of the California Kids Code will finally go into effect. This ruling is encouraging for design-focused Kids Code bills across the country because it is the fourth appellate ruling to say that Big Tech companies cannot get away with filing overbroad facial challenges to laws that provide critical safety and privacy protections for children. It is another defeat for the Big Tech lobby,” said Kids Code Coalition spokesperson Megan Iorio. “Moving forward, we urge the tech industry lobby and its NetChoice Litigation Center to cease their obstructionist campaign, drop the lawsuits, and instead start working with lawmakers and advocates to ensure safety is baked into their platforms’ design and help kids grow up healthy and happy instead of trapping them in addictive, unsafe, and exploitative digital environments.”
The Court held that NetChoice is not likely to succeed on the merits of its facial challenge to the CAADCA’s coverage definition or age estimation requirement, so the preliminary injunctions on those pieces were vacated.
The Kids Code Coalition has consistently called out plaintiff NetChoice, a lobbying front group for Big Tech companies including Meta, Google, Amazon, and Snap, for its self-serving litigation, deceptive lobbying, and misleading public statements to block state laws designed to protect children online. NetChoice is part of a network of Big Tech-funded organizations across the country, and runs a $30-million legal “war room” against kids’ online safety legislation.
The Kids Code Coalition is a wide-ranging group of national and state organizations dedicated to improving youth online security and privacy by supporting policies that ensure companies prioritize kids’ and teens’ safety and developmental needs when designing digital platforms and products.