Sept 11 (Reuters) - A federal judge has blocked Utah

from enforcing a new law aimed at protecting the mental health

of young people by requiring social media platforms to verify

users' ages and impose restrictions on minors' accounts.

Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby on Tuesday issued a

preliminary injunction after concluding that tech industry trade

group NetChoice was likely to succeed in establishing that the

law violated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment by unduly

abridging the social media companies' free speech rights.

The decision marked the latest in a string of court rulings

blocking laws deigned to protect young people online that states

enacted to address rising concerns about the dangers posed by

social media to the mental health of children.

"The court recognizes the state's earnest desire to protect

young people from the novel challenges associated with social

media use," Shelby wrote.

But he said, "even well-intentioned legislation that

regulates speech based on content must satisfy a tremendously

high level of constitutional scrutiny," and that Utah's law did

not.

Utah's attorney general did not respond to a request for

comment.

Republican Governor Spencer Cox signed the Utah Minor

Protection in Social Media Act into law in March. The measure

partially replaced an earlier social media regulation law the

state repealed after NetChoice sued to block it as well.

The new law was set to take effect on Oct. 1 and required

social media companies to adopt age verification systems to

determine if a user was a minor and required the companies to

impose special privacy settings for accounts used by children.

NetChoice, whose members include Meta Platforms' ( META )

Facebook and Instagram, Alphabet's YouTube, Snap Inc's ( SNAP )

Snapchat and Elon Musk's X, argued that the law imposed

unjustified, content-based restrictions on the companies'

speech.

Shelby said the group's argument was "persuasive," saying

the law drew distinctions between types of websites yet only

imposed content-based restrictions on how social media companies

can construct and operate their platforms and not others.

Chris Marchese, director of NetChoice's litigation center,

in a statement said the ruling "highlights just how flawed this

law is at its core," and that his group was looking forward to

having it and similar laws nationally permanently struck down.

NetChoice has won court rulings blocking similar laws in

full or part in Arkansas, California, Mississippi, Ohio and

Texas.