OH Social Media Access Law Permanently Blocked

Judge Permanently Blocks OH Social Media Access Law

A federal judge issued an injunction permanently blocking an Ohio law that requires parental consent for those under the age of 16 to have a social media account.

Although U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley praised the state for seeking to protect minors from harm, he said the Ohio law, enacted in 2023, violated the First Amendment. He compared it to a law passed in California in 2005 banning the sale of violent video games to kids, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down on the grounds that states don’t have “a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.”

An Arkansas law that is similar to the Ohio one was permanently enjoined in March. Both laws had already been temporarily blocked.

Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Utah have also passed social media parental consent laws, according to NetChoice, the tech trade group that challenged the Arkansas and Ohio laws.

But the legal setbacks don’t appear to be deterring state lawmakers on the issue. Since the ruling on the Arkansas law, state lawmakers there have passed legislation that would lower the age for parental consent for social media access from 18 to 16 (SB 611) and grant parents the right to sue social media companies for contributing to their child’s suicide or attempted suicide (SB 612). (PLURIBUS NEWS)

—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK

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