CINCINNATI, Ohio—Today, NetChoice asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to rehear its challenge to Ohio’s HB33, a law that substitutes parents for government as the primary decision-makers when it comes to accessing lawful online speech. A divided panel let the law stand, the first ruling of its kind in the country, and NetChoice is asking the full court to set it right.
“The First Amendment’s protections apply to digital speech just as they apply to books, movies, and television. Ohio’s law is unconstitutional, and we are confident the full Sixth Circuit will strike it down,” said Paul Taske, Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.
“Parenting decisions must be made by parents. The government cannot impose its view of what some parents want on all families across the state.”
Ohio’s HB33 blocks anyone under 16 from creating accounts on a wide range of websites, including blogs and book-recommendation sites far beyond social media, unless users first hand over sensitive information to verify their identities and ages. That puts the government, not parents, in charge of what families can read and say online, and builds new honeypots of personal data that can be breached or misused.
Find more information about NetChoice v. Yost here.
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