Ninth Circuit Upholds California Social Media Protection Law for Minors

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a mixed ruling in NetChoice, LLC v. Bonta, largely upholding California’s Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) while striking down one provision. The decision affirmed a district court’s denial of NetChoice’s preliminary injunction challenge to the law, which regulates how social media companies can use addictive algorithms and personalized feeds when targeting minors.

The three-judge panel upheld key provisions requiring parental consent before minors can receive ‘addictive feeds’ and mandating that minors’ accounts default to private mode. However, the court found that NetChoice was likely to succeed on First Amendment grounds in challenging the law’s restriction on displaying ’like counts’ to minors, though this provision could be severed from the broader statute.

The ruling represents a significant victory for state efforts to regulate big tech’s impact on children, rejecting industry arguments that algorithmic curation is protected speech. The court held that NetChoice lacked standing to challenge certain provisions and found that regulations on addictive feed design were content-neutral restrictions that served compelling state interests in protecting minors’ mental health. The decision could influence similar legislative efforts nationwide to regulate social media’s effects on children.