The Supreme Court today declined to block a Mississippi law requiring users to verify their ages before accessing social media platforms, allowing the measure to take immediate effect. The move comes just weeks after the Court upheld a similar but more narrow Texas law mandating age verification for sites hosting sexually explicit content.


Jennifer Huddleston, senior fellow in technology policy at the Cato Institute, has extensively analyzed the constitutional and privacy risks posed by such laws. She offered the following statement in response to today’s decision:

As evidenced by the consequences of a similar law in the UK, such proposals have significant impacts on privacy and speech rights of both adult and teen users who may find themselves required to submit IDs to access a variety of information on pertinent subjects, such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine or sexual and reproductive health information. These types of laws also create new vulnerabilities for users who may need greater privacy, such as those trapped in abusive relationships, whistleblowers, or political dissidents.

The decision today does not mean the Court will automatically uphold this law as constitutional should it reach it through the full appeals process. As Justice Kavanaugh noted in his concurrence, there is an array of strong precedents that support the speech concerns voiced by NetChoice in its challenge.

If you’d like to speak with Huddleston or view her previous commentary on age-verification mandates, contact pr@​cato.​org.

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