US judge blocks Ohio law restricting children's use of social media
By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) — A federal judge on Monday prevented Ohio from implementing a new law that requires social media companies, including Meta Platform's Instagram and ByteDance's TikTok, to obtain parental consent before allowing children under 16 to use their platforms.
Chief U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbia agreed with the tech industry trade group NetChoice that the law violated minors' free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
It marked the latest court decision blocking a state's law designed to protect young people online as federal and state lawmakers look for ways to address rising concerns about the dangers posed by social media to the mental health of children.
Ohio's Republican attorney general, Dave Yost, had argued that the state's Social Media Parental Notification Act, which the legislature passed in July, was a valid measure aimed at protecting minors from damage to their mental health and sexual predators.
But Marbley agreed with NetChoice, whose members include TikTok, Elon Musk's X, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s YouTube, and Meta's Facebook (NASDAQ:META) and Instagram, that the law was «not narrowly tailored to those ends.»
«Foreclosing minors under sixteen from accessing all content on websites that the Act purports to cover, absent affirmative parental consent, is a breathtakingly blunt instrument for reducing social media’s harm to children,» he wrote.
Monday's ruling put Ohio's law on hold indefinitely while the litigation continues after the judge last month issued an order that temporarily blocked it from taking effect on Jan. 15 as scheduled.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, called the ruling disappointing. He cited «overwhelming evidence that
Read more on investing.com
