A federal judge has halted the enforcement of a new Utah law intended to safeguard the mental health of young people by requiring social media platforms to verify users' ages and place restrictions on minors' accounts.
On Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby issued a preliminary injunction, finding that NetChoice, a tech industry trade group, was likely to prove the law violated the First Amendment by excessively restricting social media companies' free speech rights.
This decision is part of a broader trend of courts blocking state laws aimed at protecting young people online, reflecting growing concerns over social media's impact on children's mental health.
While acknowledging the state's genuine intent to protect minors from the challenges of social media, Shelby wrote that "even well-intentioned legislation that regulates speech based on content must meet a very high standard of constitutional scrutiny," a standard Utah's law did not meet.
The law, scheduled to take effect on October 1, would have required social media companies to implement age verification systems and impose stricter privacy settings for minors' accounts.
NetChoice, which represents companies like Meta (Facebook and Instagram), YouTube (owned by Alphabet), Snapchat (Snap Inc.), and Elon Musk's X, argued that the law placed unjustified, content-based limits on their platforms. Shelby found this argument "persuasive," noting that the law singled out social media companies for content-based regulation while not applying similar restrictions to other types of websites.
Chris Marchese, director of NetChoice’s litigation center, welcomed the ruling, stating it "highlights just how flawed this law is at its core," and expressed hope that this and similar laws across the U.S. would be permanently struck down.
NetChoice has successfully challenged similar laws in states like Arkansas, California, Mississippi, Ohio, and Texas.
Utah’s attorney general did not respond to requests for comment. The law was signed in March by Republican Governor Spencer Cox as part of the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act, a replacement for an earlier law that was repealed after NetChoice sued to block it.