Google, Meta and TikTok have sued the US state of California to block a new law aimed at limiting the risk of children under 16 becoming addicted to social media.
The law, Assembly Bill 1709, bars platforms from offering underage users “psychologically exploitative features” that could lead to compulsive use, such as personalised recommendations and videos that play automatically. It also requires the deletion of children’s accounts that have those features.
In separate lawsuits filed on Wednesday, the three companies said the law wrongly forces them to present content to children in the way California prefers and replaces parents’ judgment with the state’s. They argued that it violates free speech protections under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, as well as Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which broadly shields online platforms from liability over user content.
Google filed its case in federal court in San Jose, while Meta sued in San Francisco and TikTok in Los Angeles. The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the only defendant, said on Thursday that it was reviewing the lawsuits and was “committed to defending California’s commonsense laws to protect kids online”.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on Sept 10, saying children’s safety should be central to any discussion about technology. The law takes effect on Jan 1, 2027, unless a judge strikes it down or puts it on hold.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said parents were best positioned to make the right decisions for their families and that overly broad laws break systems built to help children find age-appropriate videos. Meta said California could not override its editorial judgments on how to curate and display posts, while TikTok said protected speech cannot be suppressed solely to shield the young from ideas or images that lawmakers consider unsuitable.
Many US states regulate children’s access to social media, and Australia has banned social media for children under 16. The three companies, along with Snapchat owner Snap, still face thousands of lawsuits from individuals, school districts and government bodies claiming they sought to addict children and caused a mental health crisis.