A federal judge in Baton Rouge has ruled that Louisiana’s law that requires social media companies to verify the age of users, obtain parental consent and provide parental controls is unconstitutional. Judge John deGravelles said the law violates the First Amendment. Attorney General Liz Murrill says it’s unfortunate that the court chose to protect huge corporations that facilitate child exploitation.
“We have an all-hands-on-deck problem, and they should be part of the solution,” Murrill said.
NetChoice challenged Louisiana’s social media age verification law, saying the government does not have the authority to restrict access to lawful speech it does not like. But Murrill says the purpose of the legislation is to protect children from online predators.
“We are dealing with an epidemic of possession of child sexual abuse material. I have a press conference on Thursday to announce a number of arrests of sex predators using social media,” Murrill said.
NetChoice argued before the court that age verification requirements amount to First Amendment violations because they force users to give up too much personal information just to gain access. Murrill says she plans to appeal the ruling.
“I think it’s just unfortunate that the judge chose to validate and support the claims of these very, very, very wealthy corporations over protecting minors,” Murrill said.