California bans addictive feeds for minors after judge's ruling

A federal judge on Tuesday evening blocked a challenge by tech lobbying group NetChoice to California's recently enacted law, SB 976, which prohibits companies from serving 'addictive feeds' to minors.

Effective immediately, the ruling means that from Wednesday, companies will be banned from serving addictive feeds to California-based users known to be minors, unless they obtain explicit parental consent. SB 976 defines an addictive feed as an algorithm that selects and recommends content for users based on their behaviour rather than their explicit preferences.

From January 2027, companies will be required to implement 'age assurance techniques,' such as age estimation models, to determine if a user is a minor and adjust their feeds accordingly.

In November, NetChoice, whose members include Meta, Google, and X, filed a lawsuit against the law, claiming it violated the First Amendment. While the judge denied NetChoice’s request for an injunction, other provisions of the law, including a restriction on nighttime notifications for minors, were blocked. A similar law was passed in New York in June.