Jeff Amy
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia is the latest state to block a federal judge’s law requiring age verification of social media accounts.
Like seven other states where such laws are blocked, federal judges ruled on Thursday that Georgia’s law violated his right to free speech.
The ruling by US District Judge Amy Torttenberg means that the Georgia measures passed in 2024 will not go into effect as planned. Instead, Totenberg granted a provisional injunction that obstructed the law until a full judgment on the matter was made.
Georgia law requires that some social media providers take “commercially reasonable” measures to verify the age of users and require children under the age of 16 to obtain permission from the parent of their account. It was challenged by NetChoice, a trading group that represents online business.
“The state is trying to set a barrier to speech that cannot withstand the strict scrutiny required by the Constitution,” Totenberg wrote.
Georgia will appeal, a spokesman for Attorney General Chris Kerr said Thursday.
“We will continue to advocate for common sense measures to empower parents and protect children online,” spokesman Kara Murray said in a statement.
Parents, and even some teenagers, are increasingly concerned about the impact of social media use on youth. Advocates of the law say it is necessary to help curb the explosive use of social media among young people, and what researchers say is a linked increase in depression and anxiety. Totenberg said concerns about social media that hurts children are legal, but they don’t outweigh constitutional violations.
Totenberg writes that NetChoice members are irreparably harmed by the law. She refused to argue from the state that the group should not receive temporary relief as the group delayed filing the lawsuit and must provide 90 days of notice before the law comes into effect.
“Free expression will never end where government uncertainty begins,” Litigation Director Chris Marchez said in a statement. “Parents who are not politicians should guide their children’s lives online and offline, and do not need to hand over government IDs to speak in digital spaces.”
It is the ninth state that NetChoice blocked laws relating to children’s social media use. In Arkansas and Ohio, federal judges have permanently overturned the law. In addition to Georgia, measures are also pending in California, Florida, Mississippi, Texas and Utah. Louisiana agreed not to enforce the law while the lawsuit progressed. Only in Tennessee, federal judges temporarily refused to block the law, and NetChoice had not proven that people would be irreparably harmed if the law was not blocked before trial.
Georgia argued that the law was intended to protect children in dangerous places and compared them to banning them from bars where they serve alcohol, rather than limiting speeches.
Original issue: June 26, 2025, 7:34pm EDT
