Beginning Jan. 15, parents will be able to have a better idea of what their children are doing on social media, along with being able to monitor what accounts they are setting up.

After being approved by the General Assembly in July, the Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act will take effect on Jan. 15. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says the new state law will give parents oversight of their children’s use of social media websites as well as online services and products aimed at children.

“This law aims to give parents more control over their children creating new social media accounts,” Yost stated in a press release. “So just like any other time, if you feel like you’ve been wronged by a company, we take those complaints and work to resolve any issues — this is no different.”

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was a big supporter of the new law as he believes social media is designed to be addictive and is harming the mental health of children. He said it’s time that parents have more say in the digital lives of their children.

“We hope that more parents will either prohibit or limit the amount of interaction their spending on their devices, on these apps, and put filters on it to make sure that it is limiting the age-level content,” Husted said.

This law will apply to websites, services and products that are targeted to children or reasonably expected to be accessed by children. When the law is enacted, operators — which are considered to be any traditional social media company like Facebook, Snapchat or X (formerly Twitter), to gaming platforms or shared message boards — must obtain parental consent before establishing accounts for children under the age of 16. They also must present parents with a list of censoring or content moderation features.

Then, once the consent is granted, operators must send written confirmation of the account to the parent or legal guardian. When consent is not given, operators must deny access to the platform.

When operators fail to provide notification or a parent wishes to terminate a child’s access, the parent can contact the website operator, who then has 30 days to terminate the child’s access.

If parents are unsuccessful in the account being deleted, they are encouraged to file a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at OhioProtects.org.

Ohio isn’t the first state to enact a law similar to this and judges have blocked laws pertaining to children’s privacy on social media platforms as well. According to a USA Today article, a similar law was blocked in Arkansas following a lawsuit from NetChoice, a coalition of trade associations, e-commerce businesses and online consumers. NetChoice also submitted opponent testimony.

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