Attorney General Bonta Files Notice of Appeal to Overturn Preliminary Injunction Blocking Children’s Online Safety Law

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a notice of appeal to overturn a preliminary injunction that would block a children’s online safety law — the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act — from going into effect. The preliminary injunction was granted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on September 18, 2023, and it is now being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

"We are filing a notice of appeal today to defend California’s first-in-the-nation children’s online safety law," said Attorney General Bonta. "We believe the district court decision is wrong, and that we should be able to protect our children as they use the internet. Big businesses have no right to our children’s data: childhood experiences are not for sale." 

Authored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo), the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act was passed unanimously on a bipartisan basis by the California Legislature and was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 15, 2022. 

The notice of appeal can be found here.