Yost Urges Appeals Court to Overturn Block on Parental-Consent Law

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — A brief filed today with a federal appeals court lays out Ohio’s arguments for reversing a block on the state’s parental-consent law for social media.
 
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit seeks to undo a permanent injunction granted in April to NetChoice, a trade group that represents Meta, TikTok, X, and other social media giants.
 
“NetChoice purports to bring this case on behalf of Ohio’s children, but that is fanciful,” the brief says. “NetChoice’s obvious concern is its members’ bottom line.”
 
NetChoice sued the state on First Amendment grounds in January 2024, shortly before the Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act was due to take effect. The law requires social media companies to verify a user’s age and obtain parental consent for children younger than 16 to protect them from online harm. On April 16 of this year, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio sided with NetChoice, granting the injunction.
 
In appealing the decision, the state argues that NetChoice lacks third-party standing, meaning the organization has no legal right to bring the case on behalf of Ohio children.
 
“The conflicts between social-media entities and children are too great to allow NetChoice to stand in children’s shoes,” the brief says. “Doing so would mean the fox guards the henhouse.”
 
The state also contends that the parental-consent provision of the law targets conduct, not speech — and, therefore, does not violate the First Amendment, as NetChoice claims.
 
Emphasizing the need for the law, the brief notes that Ohio lawmakers enacted the statute after the U.S. Surgeon General in 2023 issued an urgent public-health advisory warning of the harmful effects of social media on children.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Dominic Binkley: 614-728-4127

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