Sixth Circuit restores Ohio parental consent requirement for minors’ social media use

Ohio’s law requiring children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps must be restored, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.The decision comes as a blow to NetChoice, which has won court victories against identical digital identification laws in other states, including Arkansas, Louisiana and Georgia. The trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies said the Ohio decision went against “clear national consensus” and that it intended to keep fighting.“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” said Paul Taske, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.Netchoice brought suit against Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel disagreed. In a 2-1 decision, it found that the law was not unconstitutional and sent it back to a lower court to have a block on the law’s enforcement vacated.“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote in the lead opinion. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”Judge Alice Batchelder concurred, writing that “a statute is not vague just because it has a wide berth.”Known as the Social Media Parental Notification Act, the Ohio law was part of an $86.1 billion state budget bill that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in July 2023.The administration pushed the measure as a way to protect children’s mental health, with then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, now a U.S. senator, saying at the time that social media was “intentionally addictive” and harmful to kids.The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.Republican Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson called Thursday’s ruling “a win for Ohio families.”“The court agreed that parents — not social media companies — should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.” —Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press

The court said the law—which would require age verification for everyone—constitutes only a “marginal burden” and "does not raise meaningful concerns about muting valuable protected discourse."

The panel found the law did not violate free ‌speech ⁠protections under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

A federal appeals court has ruled that Ohio can enforce legislation requiring children under 16 to obtain parental consent before using social media platforms, marking a significant development in state-level efforts to regulate minors' online activity. The post Federal Appeals Court Allows Ohio to Enforce Social Media Law Requiring Parental Consent for Minors appeared first on Breitbart.

Thursday's opinion reinstated an Ohio requirement that minors under age 16 get parental consent before creating social media accounts, despite First Amendment objections from an internet trade group.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling on Thursday, ordered the restoration of the Social Media Parental Notification Act, which a lower court had previously blocked