A law requiring social media and gaming sites to get parental permission before letting any Ohioan younger than 16 onto their platforms can鈥檛 go into effect because of its unconstitutionality, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The passed as part of the state budget in summer 2023 and was set to become law in January 2024. Just days before, NetChoice sued, and the law was put on an indefinite pause through Wednesday鈥檚 ruling.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Dave Yost wrote in an email Wednesday his team was 鈥渞eviewing the decision鈥� to determine whether an appeal was next. Gov. Mike DeWine is encouraging Yost to appeal, according to a statement, which likened the proposal to permission slips for school trips or sports teams.
If Yost does not take action within 30 days, the law gets struck down for good, said Paul Taske, associate director of litigation for NetChoice.
鈥淓ven though the legislature鈥檚 goal is laudable and desirable, the way they鈥檙e going about it is wrong and misguided. It violates the First Amendment, and that鈥檚 evident, because there are a lot of less restrictive ways that the government can advance its ends here,鈥� Taske said in an interview.
In NetChoice鈥檚 original January 2024 , the trade association argued Ohio鈥檚 law was too broad and violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Its members include Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, Snapchat parent Snap Inc., and TikTok, among other big names in technology.
U.S. Southern District of Ohio Judge Algenon Marbley largely agreed, writing that he finds the state law 鈥渢roublingly vague.鈥�
鈥淭his Court lauds the State鈥檚 effort through the Act to protect the children of this state,鈥� Marbley wrote. 鈥淭his Court finds, however, that the Act as drafted fails to pass constitutional muster and is constitutionally infirm.鈥�
DeWine, then-Lt. Gov. and now-U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, and other Ohio legislative leaders advocated for the law to protect children鈥檚 mental health. NetChoice, however, said its members already have protections in place, and that parents should be the ones deciding for their kids about whether a platform is okay to use.
State lawmakers have said they will try again to pass age verification provisions, this time targeting application stores rather than individual apps.
According to identical and introduced earlier this month, if an app is 鈥渓ikely to be accessed by children,鈥� app stores would have to obtain parental permission prior to letting Ohioans 16 years or younger download the app. Stores would verify user ages through a user鈥檚 device.
Though it hasn鈥檛 filed any lawsuits over similar efforts in other states yet, NetChoice sees those efforts as 鈥渁 much blunter way to restrict access,鈥� Taske said.
