If You Love Something, Let It Go: Giving Up Government Mandated Online Age Restrictions in Favor of § 230 Inspired Immunity
Across the United States, lawmakers are turning to age restrictions and verification mandates as a catchall solution for online risks to children. However, these laws raise concerns in the legal landscape and beyond, not the least of which are First Amendment constitutional issues. This Note critiques mandatory age gate policies and projects future applications in areas of emerging concern, specifically the potential for expansion to age gating artificial intelligence (“AI”) chatbots. Despite the Supreme Court’s approval of age verification and restriction as it applies to adult content online in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, their recent unsigned order on the matter of NetChoice v. Fitch indicates that their approval may not extend to other corners of the internet. However, this order is not necessarily predictive of what the Court would do in a full opinion on this or a similar matter. This Note closes by offering an alternative solution to the direct legislation efforts: Section 230 inspired laws that reward the choice to implement age verification and restriction rather than of requiring age verification and restriction and doling out punishments for non-compliance.
PDF: https://journals.law.unc.edu/ncjolt/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2025/11/Note_Pedro_To_Publish_READY_11.26.25.pdf
Author: Cole Pedro
Volume 27, Issue 2