• by Wendy Davis , June 17, 2026

Louisiana is pressing a federal appellate court to allow enforcement of a state law that requires social platforms to verify users' ages, and prohibits platforms from allowing minors under 16 to create or maintain accounts without parental permission.

In papers filed Tuesday with the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, state Attorney General Liz Murrill contends that Louisiana's law merely regulates minors' "commercial transactions" with social media companies.

"A minor opens a social-media account by accepting contractual terms and exchanging data and attention for access to the service," Murrill argues. "The age-verification and parental-consent provisions regulate that transaction."

The 5th Circuit accepted a nearly identical argument last month, when it lifted a block on a Texas law requiring Google and Apple to verify users' ages and prevent minors under the age of 18 from downloading apps or making in-app purchases, without parental consent.

(The tech industry group Computer & Communications Industry Association and student organization Students Engaged in Advancing Texas recently asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a block on the Texas law. That application is pending with Justice Samuel Alito, who has directed Texas to respond by June 22.)

Murrill's new papers come in a challenge to the law brought last year by the tech group NetChoice, which argues the statute unconstitutionally restricts speech.

U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles in the Middle District of Louisiana agreed and issued an injunction barring the state from enforcing the statute against NetChoice members including Meta Platforms, Nextdoor, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, X, YouTube, Tumblr, Discord and Amazon's Twitch.

In March, the attorney general appealed to the 5th Circuit, arguing in an initial round of papers that the law is comparable to statutes regulating minors' consumption of alcohol or cigarettes.

Murrill adds in her newest papers that Louisiana's law should go into effect for the same reasons that the 5th Circuit recently allowed Texas's restrictions on app downloads to take effect.

"If left standing, the judgment below would leave Louisiana powerless to require of Reddit what this Court just let Texas require of Apple," Murrill argues.

NetChoice is urging the 5th Circuit to preserve the injunction.

"'Minors are entitled to a significant measure of First Amendment protection,' and the state’s power to protect minors 'does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed,'" NetChoice argued last month, quoting from a 2011 Supreme Court decision that struck down California's restrictions on the sale of violent video games.

Digital rights advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wikimedia Foundation are also asking the 5th Circuit to leave the injunction in place.

The 5th Circuit hasn't yet set a date for oral arguments.