The Supreme Court has permitted Mississippi’s law mandating age verification for social media users to move forward while litigation is underway. In a decision issued on Thursday, the court rejected an emergency request from the trade group NetChoice to suspend the law’s implementation. The ruling did not provide detailed reasoning, although Justice Brett Kavanaugh remarked in a concurring opinion that the law is “likely unconstitutional,” but NetChoice had not adequately shown a substantial risk of harm.
The legislation, known as HB 1126, mandates that social media platforms confirm the age of users setting up accounts and prohibits those under 18 from creating accounts unless they obtain parental permission. Additionally, it requires these platforms to shield minors from “harmful material,” including explicit content and content related to self-harm, while also limiting data collection practices.
NetChoice, which has backing from major tech companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, Reddit, and Discord, contends that such age verification regulations infringe upon First Amendment rights. While the trade association previously secured a temporary injunction against the law last year, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals annulled it in April, allowing the law’s enforcement to proceed. Justice Kavanaugh noted that various district courts had previously blocked comparable legislation in other states.
Kavanaugh pointed out that “NetChoice has, in my view, demonstrated that it is likely to succeed on the merits — namely, that enforcement of the Mississippi law would likely violate its members’ First Amendment rights.”
In light of this challenge, NetChoice remains optimistic about the outcome. “While we’re disappointed with the Court’s decision, Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence makes clear that NetChoice will ultimately succeed in defending the First Amendment — not just in this case but across all of our ID-for-Speech lawsuits,” remarked Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center. He characterized the situation as “merely an unfortunate procedural delay.”
This ruling comes amid a growing trend among lawmakers in the U.S. and worldwide to implement age verification policies aimed at safeguarding children from harmful online content. Earlier in June, the Supreme Court upheld a Texas law mandating that users verify their ages to access adult sites, potentially paving the way for additional age verification requirements. In parallel, the United Kingdom has begun to enforce a broader online age-gating system, requiring users to validate their identity through government-issued IDs, facial scans, or credit card details on selected websites.
Jennifer Huddleston, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, expressed concerns regarding the implications of age verification laws, stating that they have “significant impacts on privacy and speech rights of both adult and teen users.” She also emphasized that the Supreme Court’s latest decision does not guarantee that the law will ultimately be deemed constitutional once it goes through the full appeals process.
