NetChoice, a trade association that represents tech firms, has sued to block California's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (A.B. 2273), the state's hamfisted attempt to protect children online. As NetChoice writes in a request for a preliminary injunction filed last month, the law violates the Constitution by "enact[ing] a system of prior restraint over protected speech using undefined, vague terms, and creat[ing] a regime of proxy censorship, forcing online services to restrict speech in ways the State could never do directly." The law will require any business (as defined by California statute) offering online services "likely to be accessed by children" to " [e]stimate the age of child users with a reasonable level of certainty appropriate to the risks that arise from the data management practices of the business or apply the privacy and data protections afforded to children to all consumers" (emphasis added). In other words, if a company cannot erect obstacles for children users specifically, it must create obstacles for all users.
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