GoKawiilTaylor Kerns / Android Authority
TL;DR A US appeals court has ruled Ohio can enforce a 2023 law requiring parental consent for kids under 16 to use social media.
For users in Ohio, the law would effectively require age verification at sign-up for platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
Proponents argue that the law will help protect children from potential online harm. Detractors note drawbacks including cybersecurity risks involved in online ID verification, as well as potential First Amendment issues.
Another US state is making headway toward restricting social media access for kids. This week, a US appeals court ruled that Ohio can enforce a law requiring social media operators to obtain parental consent before allowing children under 16 to access their platforms, overturning a 2024 decision that had blocked the law from going into effect.
Ohio’s Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act was initially signed into law in 2023 and set to go into effect the following year, but was held up by a legal challenge from industry group NetChoice, whose members include Meta and YouTube. Reuters reports that the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has reversed a prior decision in favor of NetChoice, allowing the law to go into effect.
The law doesn’t outright ban kids from social media, but says that social media operators have to obtain “verifiable consent” from the parents of children age 15 and younger in order for those kids to legally agree to social media platforms’ terms of service, barring under-16s who don’t have parental permission.
The text of the law doesn’t specify how platforms are meant to ensure that new users are 16 or older, but it does spell out fines of up to $10,000 per day for non-complying platforms operating within the state of Ohio. Once enforced, the law would effectively mandate age verification at sign-up for platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and X.
In the decision, US Circuit Judge Eric Clay wrote that parental consent “constitutes a marginal burden” that’s ultimately worth it to protect children from the potential harms of social media use. The decision lists “prevalent use of social media among child sexual predators to target minors, deficient data privacy for minor social media users, and exploitative contract terms” among those potential harms.
NetChoice’s response to the decision argues that mass collection of government IDs by digital platforms presents a cybersecurity risk, and that “dictating how citizens communicate” is an infringement on the First Amendment. The organization says it’s confident Ohio’s law “will ultimately be struck down permanently.”
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