• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 28, 2025

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is asking an appellate court to lift a block on a law that prohibits social media companies from algorithmically recommending posts to minors without their parents' consent.

The Protecting Our Kids From Social Media Addiction Act (SB976) “is a content-neutral law that regulates certain harmful features of internet platforms, such as addictive feeds,” Bonta's office argues in papers filed Thursday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

He adds that the law furthers California's goal of protecting “the physical and mental health and well-being of children and teens.”

The law, which is currently stayed, had been slated to take effect January 1.

The tech industry group NetChoice challenged the statute in court last year, arguing that it violates web publishers' First Amendment right to recommend content, as well as teens' right to access material.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila in the Northern District of California blocked enforcement of some provisions, but said NetChoice hadn't proven that the restrictions on algorithmic recommendations were unconstitutional. Davila specifically noted in his opinion that the law doesn't require platforms to remove any posts.

NetChoice then appealed to the 9th Circuit, which enjoined enforcement while it considers the matter.

The tech organization -- which counts Meta, Snap, Google and other large companies as members -- argued in papers filed with the appellate court earlier this year that even if the law doesn't require social platforms to remove speech, it limits their First Amendment right to offer compilations.

The group noted in its appeal that the Supreme Court in 2011 struck down an analogous California law that would have banned the sale of violent video games to minors without parental consent.

Bonta's office counters in its new papers that the law regulates only "harmful features" of social media. 

“SB976 makes its intentions quite clear: It is meant to target platforms’ addictive features, not their content,” the attorney general contends.

He adds that the merely limits “the ability of internet companies to give minors automatic access to digital features designed to trigger compulsive use.”

Outside organizations including the tech-funded group Chamber of Progress weighed in against the law, arguing in a friend-of-the-court brief that algorithmic feeds are “indispensable to a safe and navigable internet because they enable platforms to organize the constant flood of digital content.”

The 9th Circuit will hear arguments on April 2 in Phoenix.