Key facts
- A U.S. appeals court has allowed Ohio to enforce a law requiring parental consent for children under 16 to use social media.
- The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court ruling that had blocked the law.
- The court found the law does not violate free speech protections under the First Amendment.
- The law requires social media companies to verify age and obtain parental consent for users under 16.
- The ruling comes amid growing global concerns about social media's impact on young people's health and safety.
A U.S. appeals court has allowed Ohio to enforce a law requiring children under 16 to obtain parental consent before using social media apps. The ruling by a 2-1 panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a previous block placed by a U.S. District Judge at the request of the tech industry trade group NetChoice.
In the decision, U.S. Circuit Judge Eric Clay wrote that the law imposes a parental consent requirement, which constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the problem of children's unsupervised assent to terms and conditions on platforms that may harm them. Judge Alice Batchelder concurred, stating that a statute is not vague simply because it has a wide berth.
The law, known as the Social Media Parental Notification Act, was passed by the state's legislature in 2023 and took effect in January 2024. It requires operators of websites that can be reasonably anticipated to be accessed by children under 16 to verify their age, with certain exceptions.
NetChoice, whose members include TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube, and Meta Platforms, had argued the law was unconstitutionally vague and improperly restricted children's access to content protected by the First Amendment. The group stated it remains confident the law will be struck down permanently.