Bill > HB302

This bill establishes comprehensive age verification and parental consent requirements for digital applications and platforms in Ohio, targeting connected devices like smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and virtual reality devices. The legislation requires application distribution providers, developers, operating system providers, and internet browsers/search engines to implement age verification mechanisms, including requesting users to declare their age when creating accounts, providing tools for age verification, and enabling parental controls. Specifically, developers of "covered applications" must obtain verifiable parental consent before allowing minors to access age-restricted content, prevent personalized advertising to minors, and provide tools to help parents manage their children's digital experiences. Application distributors must facilitate age signaling, enable parental control interfaces, and ensure equal treatment of third-party and their own applications. Operating system providers must allow parents to activate filter settings to block obscene material, and internet browsers/search engines must provide and honor these filters. The bill includes provisions protecting providers who make good faith efforts to comply with the requirements, and grants the Ohio Attorney General exclusive enforcement authority with the ability to impose civil penalties up to $1,000 per violation. The law will take effect one year after its passage, giving companies time to implement the necessary age verification and consent systems.

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https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/136/hb302