(C) Ohio Capital Journal
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Federal judge puts Ohio social media parental consent law on hold [1]
['Nick Evans', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-02-13
Ohio’s social media parental consent law will remain on hold while a court challenge proceeds. A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction Monday after putting the legislation on hold temporarily a month ago.
In his opinion, District Judge Algenon Marbley described it as a “breathtakingly blunt instrument for reducing social media’s harm to children.”
The law, approved last year as part of the state budget, would require websites that cater to children get “verifiable consent” from a parent before allowing minors under 16 to join the service. The idea’s backers, most notably Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, argued social media platforms work to addict children and do little to protect them from the potential harm — whether from predators or cyberbullying.
“It’s leading to the deaths of young people,” he insisted last summer. But an industry trade group called NetChoice raised several objections with the measure.
They argued restricting access would violate the companies’ and their users’ First Amendment rights. The carveouts included in the legislation, they added, leave significant doubt about which services are covered and which aren’t. The Ohio Attorney General, meanwhile, insisted the legislation was about the right of minors to enter into contracts with social media services.
The judge wasn’t buying it.
Marbley cited several exceptions including for product review sites or “well established” media outlets to show the law’s content-based restrictions are unavoidable.
“A product review website is excepted, but a book or film review website, is presumably not,” he wrote. “The State is therefore favoring engagement with certain topics, to the exclusion of others.”
The question of whether the law regulates the content of speech — rather than just the manner of speech as the state argued — is important, because content-based restrictions trigger strict scrutiny. That standard of review requires a law serve a compelling state interest by the least restrictive means to remain in place.
As to the state’s argument about protecting children from harmful contracts, “Conclusively,” Marbley wrote, “the act is not narrowly tailored to protect minors against oppressive contracts.”
“The act regulates access to and dissemination of speech when it could instead seek to regulate the — arguably unconscionable — terms of service that these platforms require,” he added.
As for the state’s interest in protecting kids from sexual predators or threats to their mental health, the judge dismissed the law as “untargeted.” He also questioned the ability of a parent’s one time approval to protect minors from harm, when the law carries no specific requirements for platforms to address predators or mental health.
The state also argued it has an interest in protecting parents’ ability to say no to social media on their child’s behalf. But pointing to the litany of parental controls available on specific apps, the device and a home network, Marbley rejected the idea that adding another avenue for parents represents a compelling interest.
Chris Marchese, who leads NetChoice’s litigation efforts, thanked the court for “prevent(ing) regulators from violating the free speech and online privacy rights of Ohioans and their kids as our case proceeds.”
“This is the fourth ruling NetChoice has obtained,” he added, “demonstrating that this law and others like it in California and Arkansas not only violate constitutional rights, but if enacted, would fail to achieve the state’s goal of protecting kids online. We look forward to seeing these laws permanently struck down and online speech and privacy fully protected across America.”
Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
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https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/02/13/federal-judge-puts-ohio-social-media-parental-consent-law-on-hold/
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