Supreme Court allows Mississippi social media law to go into effect

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to intervene in a lower court decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring users to verify their ages before using social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

The Mississippi law is far broader than a Supreme Court ruling just weeks ago that upheld a Texas law mandating age verification to access websites with sexually explicit material. Writing for the court's conservative supermajority in June, Justice Clarence Thomas held that requiring adults to verify their age prior to using sexually explicit sites did not violate the First Amendment's free speech clause because it is important to shield "children from sexually explicit content."

In contrast, the Mississippi law requires all users to verify their ages before using com