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What just happened? Ohio can enforce a law requiring children under 16 to get parental consent before using social media, a federal appeals court has ruled. The decision marks a rare win for state efforts to restrict minors' access to platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat after similar laws elsewhere were blocked on free speech grounds.
A divided 2-1 panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower-court ruling that had prevented Ohio's Social Media Parental Notification Act from taking effect.
The law requires sites that are reasonably likely to be accessed by children under 16 to verify users' ages and obtain parental approval before allowing minors to create or use accounts.
