SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge on Monday issued an injunction blocking the California attorney general from enforcing the controversial California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (CAADCA), which was passed last year after lobbying from a British baroness.
U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman stated that “the law’s commercial speech restrictions likely violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment,” Reuters reported.
Freeman added that although she was “keenly aware of the myriad harms that may befall children on the internet,” CAADCA was likely unconstitutional in the form passed unanimously by the state legislature and endorsed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Big Tech trade group NetChoice sued last December to block CAADCA, claiming the law “would pressure private companies into becoming ‘roving censors’ of content that California deems harmful, or else face ‘draconian penalties’ as high as $7,500 per child per violation,” Reuters reported.
British Interference in U.S. Free Speech Issues
As XBIZ has been reporting, California’s controversial CAADCA was drafted and lobbied for by British baroness and filmmaker Beeban Kidron.
Kidron’s lobbying is just one of multiple instances of U.S. anti-porn politicians importing British “experts” to share their opinions on American free speech issues. Though termed a “constitutional monarchy,” the U.K. has no written constitution and no equivalents to the U.S. Bill of Rights, First Amendment or codified Section 230 protections.
The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act was patterned after the U.K.’s “Children’s Code,” a set of regulatory standards devised by Kidron, who also funds the 5Rights Foundation, a nonprofit that backed the bill. One of the 5Rights Foundation’s goals is to expand the scope of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and change the definition of “child,” for online purposes, from anyone under 13 to anyone under 18.
Kidron is a 63-year-old philanthropist and self-appointed “advocate for children’s rights in the digital world.” She is also a former photographer, film producer and director whose U.K. feature films include “Vroom,” “Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit” and “Antonia and Jane.” In 1992 she moved to the U.S., where she worked with Miramax Pictures’ Harvey Weinstein. She directed “Used People,” the sex work documentary “Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and Their Johns,” “Shades of Fear,” “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar” and romantic comedy sequel “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,” starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant.