(The Center Square) – Four months after a federal court stopped Ohio’s social media parental consent law, Attorney General Dave Yost asked an appeals court to overturn the permanent injunction.
In a brief to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Yost said the group that filed the original suit lacked standing.
NetChoice, a trade group that represents Meta, TikTok, X and other social media platforms, sued and won an injunction just days before Ohio’s law was supposed to take effect in January.
“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.”
Ohio’s law requires social media companies to verify a user’s age and get parental consent for children under 16 years old to use a platform.
When it filed the suit, NetChoice said Ohio lawmakers launched a crusade that violates constitutional rights, compromises data privacy and strips away a parent’s right to make decisions on behalf of their children.
Yost said in his brief the organization does not have a right to bring the case on behalf of the state’s children and says the law targets conduct, rather than speech, and does not violate the U.S. Constitution.
“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.”
Lawmakers introduced new legislation in the spring that would force social media companies to verify a user’s age and get parental consent before someone under 16 could download an app.
Senate Bill 167 outlines three key provisions for app stores, including verifying a user’s age at the device or operating system level.
It also requires app stores to get parental consent before someone under 16 can download an app and share appropriate age information with developers, so teens are put in age-appropriate versions of apps.
That bill has not had a hearing in the Senate.
