Federal judge rules Ohio social media age verification law violates First Amendment

A federal judge in Ohio has blocked a state law that would have required social media platforms to obtain parental consent before allowing children under 16 to create accounts, ruling that the measure likely violates the First Amendment by restricting minors' access to protected speech. The preliminary injunction, issued in response to a challenge by NetChoice, adds to a growing body of case law questioning the constitutionality of blanket age-gating approaches that impose identity verification requirements on all users to restrict minors' access.

Behavioural detection offers a path that addresses the underlying risk without the constitutional burden of universal access restriction. Rather than verifying every user's age at the threshold, Guardii's real-time pattern analysis intercepts grooming, sextortion and abuse as it unfolds within the messaging layer, identifying sustained targeting or coercion directed at a child and escalating to parents or authorities before harm occurs. The world-leading platform operates across Instagram, Discord, Snapchat and Roblox, surfacing children in acute distress or facing predatory contact without requiring age verification from adults or limiting lawful speech for compliant younger users.