A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed Ohio to enforce a law requiring social media companies to obtain parental consent before permitting children under 16 to access their platforms.
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. NetChoice—a trade group representing TikTok, Meta, and other major tech companies—later filed a lawsuit, alleging that the law was unconstitutional.
In April, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley ruled in NetChoice’s favor and permanently blocked Ohio from enforcing the law. The state subsequently appealed the ruling.
In a 2–1 decision on June 18, a panel of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court ruling, finding that Ohio’s law does not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution….