COLUMBUS, OH (WLIO) - A federal judge continues to block an Ohio law that would require children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps.
The law was blocked while a trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, and other major tech companies sued the state because of the law. The complaint argues that the law unconstitutionally impedes free speech and is overly broad and vague. The state contends the law is justified as a way to protect children from the harms of social media. The law was to take effect on January 15th, but federal judges issued their injunction before then. Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted says the state is trying to hold social media companies accountable.
"They keep producing on their platforms information that is not age appropriate. Subjecting kids to things that are resulting in sextortion, suicide, and other, just tragic stories around our state," says Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted. "Had one in Lima recently, in the Lima area, where a young lady was basically kidnapped from a video game platform, from someone, an adult that she met in that setting. This is very troubling what is going on for kids in our state."
Husted says the state will not give up going after the social media companies.
