Key Points:
- A federal judge stopped a Virginia law limiting teens to one hour of social media daily.
- The tech industry group NetChoice sued the state to block the legislation.
- The judge ruled the law likely violates the free speech rights of users.
- The mandate required everyone, including adults, to verify their age online.
A federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked a new state law designed to limit how much time teenagers spend on social media. The law aimed to restrict users under sixteen to just one hour of access per day while forcing platforms to verify the age of every single user.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles issued the preliminary injunction on Friday. She sided with NetChoice, a major technology trade group representing tech giants like Google, Meta, and X. NetChoice argued the rules unconstitutionally restrict free speech for both kids and adults.
Former Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin signed Senate Bill 854 last May, and it officially took effect on the first day of 2026. State officials defended the measure in court. They claimed the law correctly targets addictive social media features to help solve the growing youth mental health crisis.
Judge Giles disagreed with the state’s approach. While she acknowledged Virginia has a strong reason to protect children from digital addiction, she ruled the current law misses the mark. She noted that it goes too far by forcing adults to hand over personal information to verify their ages. At the same time, it falls short by completely ignoring other potentially addictive media, such as interactive video games.
The judge also pointed out glaring contradictions in how the law treats different types of content. For example, the rules would stop a teenager from watching an educational science video or a church service on a social media site for more than an hour, but that same teen could watch the exact same video on a dedicated streaming platform without any limits.
Paul Taske, a director at the NetChoice Litigation Center, celebrated the court’s decision. He stated that the government simply cannot ration access to legal speech, no matter how noble its intentions might be. Taske emphasized that parents need to stay in charge of deciding what works best for their own families.
Meanwhile, the state plans to keep fighting. Rae Pickett, a spokesperson for Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, said the office will continue looking for ways to enforce laws that empower parents and shield children from the proven harms of online platforms.
