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COLUMBUS, Ohio — <\/span>Ohio’s law requiring children under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps must be restored, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.<\/p>\n The decision comes as a blow to NetChoice, which had won court victories against similar laws in other states, including California and Arkansas. <\/p>\n The trade group representing TikTok, Snapchat, Meta and other major tech companies brought suit against Ohio’s law<\/a> in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech. <\/p>\n The Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel disagreed. In a 2-1 decision, it found that the law was not unconstitutional and sent it back to a lower court to have a block on the law’s enforcement<\/a> vacated.<\/p>\n \u201cAt bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,\u201d Judge Eric Clay wrote in the lead opinion. \u201cThat requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children\u2019s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.\u201d<\/p>\n Judge Alice Batchelder concurred, writing that \u201ca statute is not vague just because it has a wide berth.\u201d <\/p>\n Known as the Social Media Parental Notification Act, the Ohio law was part of an $86.1 billion state budget bill<\/a> that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law in July 2023. <\/p>\n The administration pushed the measure as a way to protect children\u2019s mental health, with then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, now a U.S. senator, saying at the time that social media was \u201cintentionally addictive\u201d and harmful to kids.<\/p>\n The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child\u2019s profile.<\/p>\n Requests for comment were sent to the Ohio attorney general’s office, the defendant in the case, and to NetChoice. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n