Tech giants challenge California child-safety law
Google, Meta and TikTok sue California to block law protecting children from addiction risk
Friday, 6 November 2026
Photo by Thom Bradley on Unsplash
Warm-up
- What features keep you scrolling on social media?
- Who should set online rules for children: parents, firms or governments?
- What is one helpful and one harmful part of your favourite app?
Vocabulary
- lawsuit
- a legal case brought to a court to solve a dispute
- enforce
- to make sure a law or rule is followed
- prohibit
- to officially not allow something
- exploitative
- treating people unfairly to gain an advantage
- autoplay
- a setting that plays the next video automatically
- recommendation
- content suggested to a user by a system
- constitution
- a country’s highest set of laws and principles
- liability
- legal responsibility for something, such as harm or damage
Reading
Listen to this story
British EnglishGoogle, Meta and TikTok filed lawsuits in California to stop the state from enforcing Assembly Bill 1709, a new child-safety law for social media. The law prohibits platforms from offering under-16s psychologically exploitative features, including autoplay and personal recommendations, and it requires affected accounts to be deleted.
The companies argue the rules violate the US constitution and Section 230, which limits platforms’ liability for user content. They also say California is forcing a single way to present content and replacing parents’ judgement about what their children see.
California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said his office will defend the law. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it on 10 September. It is due to take effect on 1 January 2027 unless a judge voids it or puts it on hold.
Critics such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation call the measure overreaching. Supporters argue it targets features that can drive compulsive use. Google, which owns YouTube, and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, say they already offer teen safety tools. TikTok is owned by ByteDance.
Comprehension
- Which companies brought the court cases in California?
- What features for under-16s does the law prohibit?
- When is the law due to take effect?
- On what legal grounds do the firms challenge the law?
- Who said the state will defend the law?
Grammar focus
Future perfect continuous
Use will + have been + verb-ing to show an action continuing up to a future time. Signals: by + future date; for/since + period. Forms: will have been working/changing. (Examples constructed.)
- By 1 January 2027, platforms will have been adjusting designs.
- By then, critics will have been arguing for narrower rules.
Practise this grammar: Future perfect continuous (B2)
Grammar exercise
Complete each sentence with the future perfect continuous form.
- By 1 Jan 2027, engineers (test) ___ tools for months.
- By 1 Jan 2027, moderators (flag) ___ risks for weeks.
- By 1 Jan 2027, supporters (push) ___ changes since 10 Sep.
- By then, critics (warn) ___ about compulsive use for years.
- By 1 Jan 2027, lawyers (prepare) ___ cases for months.
Discussion
- Should autoplay and recommendations be limited for children? Why or why not?
- Who should decide online rules for minors: parents, platforms or states?
- Do company safety tools work, or is law needed as well?
- What simple changes could make social media less addictive?
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