• by Wendy Davis , April 13, 2026

A federal appeals court rejected Virginia's request to allow enforcement of a law requiring social platforms to verify users' ages and prohibit minors under 16 from accessing social media for more than one hour a day without parental consent.

The move leaves in place an injunction issued earlier this year by U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria.

She ruled that the Virginia law (SB 854) likely violates the First Amendment, and prohibited the state from enforcing the statute against any members of the tech group NetChoice, which represents large social media companies including Meta Platforms, YouTube, Reddit, and Dreamwidth.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones appealed the order to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the law "strikes a careful balance between access to social media and overuse."

The 4th Circuit rejected Jones' appeal for procedural reasons, stating late last week that its rules required Jones to either have asked Giles to stay the injunction, or to show why that request would have been impracticable.

"Jones did not file a stay motion with the district court, and the district court neither entertained proceedings past the preliminary injunction nor commented on the actual or potential merits of any possible stay motion," the 4th Circuit order states.

The appellate judges didn't address whether the law violates the First Amendment.

When Giles blocked the law, she wrote that the age verification mandate would impede adults' and minors' ability to access lawful speech.

She also said Virginia lacks the authority "to prevent minors from accessing constitutionally protected speech until their parents give their consent by overriding a government-imposed default limit."