It’s a measure that Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who spearheaded the regulation, said targets social media and gaming platforms. But, 10 days before the law is set to go into effect, it’s not clear how many other websites and platforms in Ohio will be compelled to follow the law.
The law defines a social media operator as any site targeted toward children or reasonably accessed by children where users can create an account, socially interact with other users and create or post content viewable by others. But, the law clarifies that the site also has to “populate a list of other users with whom an individual shares or has the ability to share a social connection.”
When asked for more specifics about which platforms fall under the definition of the law, Husted said: “I can probably easier tell you what it’s not (going to impact).” This includes e-commerce merchants, news publications, search engines, and sites meant for cloud storage and broadband internet access.
Art Jipson, an associate professor of sociology and expert on social media at the University of Dayton, raised some concern about how wide a net the regulation casts.
“You’re basically talking about pretty much everything online,” he said.
Jipson noted that the definition’s populated list provision — seemingly the most exclusive part — could simply refer to rudimentary data collection that nearly all websites perform in order to sell advertisements, or even a contact list.
Under this interpretation, Jipson said the law could easily require services like Gmail or Outlook to obtain parental consent before creating an account for a child under 16.
“When you draft a law to be as broad as this, you may very well find it’s applicable to areas you did not intend,” Jipson said.
According to Husted, the definition has not yet been the cause of any complaints, at least from the social media platforms and gaming platform operators that he’s met with, but he said he can’t provide a list of all the platforms that the law would cover.
This news organization also asked the Ohio Attorney General’s office to provide a list of websites and platforms that will be impacted by the law, but the office did not respond in time for publication.
Ultimately, the lieutenant governor said, the platforms themselves will have to read the law and determine whether it falls under its definition.
Coming Sunday: Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and various experts in social media and mental health from the University of Dayton, Montgomery County ADAMHS Board and Dayton Children’s Hospital provide insight on Ohio’s new Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act and the problems it hopes to address.
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