Bonta Pushes Back Against Injunction Challenging Children's Internet Privacy Law

By Ria Roebuck Joseph | The Center Square contributor, The Center Square California

April 25, 2023

(The Center Square) - Today California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a brief in opposition to a motion for preliminary injunction brought by NetChoice LLC in February. Bonta claims the brief is to maintain California’s law protecting the privacy of minors online.

In 2022, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, modeled after the United Kingdom’s Age-Appropriate Design Code, became law. That law was challenged in December last year by NetChoice LLC, an organization that works to make the internet safe for enterprise and free expression.

The law requires that websites likely to be accessed by children provide privacy protections by default.

“Businesses do not have a right to children’s data,” Bonta declared. The law prohibits certain actions that involve the collection and use of consumers’ information, particularly for young users.

“Children are especially vulnerable to the risks businesses’ data collection practices pose. Yet, despite their awareness that children use their services and the existence of technological capabilities to provide a safer experience for children, businesses often fail to take steps to provide that safer experience,” the brief stated.

NetChoice says the law uses the guise of protecting children to expand government power over online speech.

“By abandoning the First Amendment and forcing all websites to track and store information on both children and adults, California risks closing the internet and putting the digital safety of all Americans, and especially children, in jeopardy,” NetChoice Vice President and General Counsel Carl Szabo said.

NetChoice claims the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, “undermines children’s privacy by forcing sites, regardless of how secure they are, to track and store information identifying which users are children. Child predators and hackers will be drawn to less secure sites as goldmines for children’s sensitive data.”

The California legislature unanimously passed the act in an attempt to create a safer online environment for children to learn, explore and play.

Bonta’s brief revealed that over the past decade, the use of the internet by children rapidly expanded. The daily use of digital technologies by children under 2 years old averaged over three quarters of an hour; 2-4 year-olds averaged two and a half hours; 5-8 year-olds averaged just over three hours then jumped to over five and a half hours for 6-12 year-olds; 13-17 year-olds topped at over eight and a half hours daily use.

During the pandemic, time online increased by about 52%. The brief also noted that unplugging was not a viable option, as the use of the internet by children was for both educational and entertainment purposes.

The law violates the First Amendment because it deputizes online services “to act as roving Internet censors at the state’s behest”, compels speech, violates editorial discretion and is overly vague and broad, NetChoice argues.

“This is not about free speech: the companies challenging this law are doing so because they want to continue to make money from our kids’ online activity. In California, it is no longer business as usual when it comes to designing online services, products, and features that are accessed by kids – it’s time to elevate and protect children’s privacy and safety. The bottom line is: our children’s childhood experience should not be for sale, and we are defending the state stepping up to protect our children,” Bonta said.

The focus of the work of The Center Square California is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.