• by Wendy Davis , Yesterday

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones is pressing a federal appellate court to lift a block on a state law that would force social platforms to verify users' ages and prohibit minors under 16 from accessing the platforms for more than one hour a day without parental consent.

The tech group NetChoice sued over the law (SB 854), and U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria ruled last month that the statute likely violates the First Amendment, and prohibited the state from enforcing the statute against NetChoice members including Meta Platforms, YouTube, Reddit and Dreamwidth.

Jones recently sought to stay that injunction, arguing in a brief filed earlier this month with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that the statute, which aims to tackle "addiction" to social media, "strikes a careful balance between access to social media and overuse."

On Friday, Jones argued in a new round of papers that Giles wrongly issued the injunction without fully analyzing the law.

His office wrote that Giles "stopped Virginia’s enforcement of its unanimously passed statute based on a threadbare record and untested contentions."

The attorney general contends that Giles failed to consider a host of questions, including what platforms would be covered, what content is on those platforms, how many parents would change the default time limits, and how much less time children would spend on the platforms as a result of the law.

Last week, NetChoice urged the 4th Circuit to continue blocking the law, writing that it "restricts huge swaths of First Amendment activity."

The tech group added that the statute would require minors to obtain parental consent "before spending more than an hour a day watching Fourth Circuit arguments on YouTube, debating politics on Dreamwidth, or discussing college applications on College Confidential."

Jones now counters that NetChoice's argument is too speculative.

"NetChoice offers only sheer speculation -- no evidence regarding the addictiveness of various platforms, no proof that 14-year-olds spend more than an hour a day on College Confidential, and no proof that the Attorney General will bring enforcement actions against such platforms," the state argues.

The 4th Circuit hasn't yet indicated when it will rule on Virginia's request.