As Introduced
136th General Assembly
Regular Session S. B. No. 175
2025-2026
Senator Patton
To enact sections 1349.07, 1349.071, 1349.072,
1349.073, 1349.074, 1349.075, and 1349.076 of
the Revised Code to establish age verification
and parental consent requirements for certain
developers and application stores.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 1349.07, 1349.071, 1349.072,
1349.073, 1349.074, 1349.075, and 1349.076 of the Revised Code
be enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 1349.07. As used in sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of
the Revised Code:
(A) "Adult" means an account holder who is or is estimated
to be eighteen years of age or older.
(B) "Age category" means one of the following categories
based on age:
(1) Minor;
(2) Adult.
(C) "Age signal" means a signal that indicates an account
holder's age category and the methods by which that information
has been assured, which the account holder or the account
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holder's parent has agreed to share.
(D) "Application" means a software program distributed
through an application distribution provider and that is
designed to be run on a connected device and to perform, or to
help the user perform, a specific task on the connected device.
"Application" does not include web sites, internet browser
extensions, or software with a primary purpose of extending the
functionality of an internet browser.
(E) "Application distributor" means a software application
that distributes applications from developers to users of a
connected device. "Application distributor" does not include
internet browsers.
(F) "Application distribution provider" means a person
that owns, operates, or controls an application distributor.
(G) "Connected device" means a smartphone, tablet, gaming
console, or virtual reality device that enables users to connect
to the internet and download software applications.
(H) "Covered application" means an application that is not
an application distributor and that provides a different
experience for adults than for minors, such as different account
types, content, features, or advertising or data practices
depending on the user's age. "Covered application" does not
include internet browsers or search engines.
(I) "Developer" means any person that creates, owns, or
controls an application.
(J) "Filter" means a generally accepted and commercially
reasonable technology used on a connected device that is capable
of preventing the connected device from accessing or displaying
obscene material, through internet browsers or search engines,
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in accordance with prevailing industry standards, including
blocking known web sites primarily intended for the distribution
of obscene material via mobile data networks, wired internet
networks, and wireless internet networks.
(K) "Internet browser" means a software program that
allows users to access and display web sites on the internet.
(L) "Minor" means an account holder who is or is estimated
to be under the age of eighteen.
(M) "Obscene" and "material" have the same meanings as in
section 2907.01 of the Revised Code.
(N) "Operating system" means software that manages
applications on a connected device, including those
applications' access to the network, hardware, and other device
resources.
(O) "Operating system provider" means the company that
owns, operates, or controls the operating system on a connected
device.
(P) "Parent" includes a legal guardian.
(Q) "Search engine" means software that allows users to
input queries in order to perform searches of content on web
sites on the basis of a query in the form of a keyword, voice
request, phrase, or other input, and returns results in any
format in which information related to the query can be found.
(R) "Verifiable parental consent" means obtaining the
consent of a minor's parent in such a manner that is reasonably
calculated, in light of available technology, to ensure that the
person providing consent is the minor's parent. "Verifiable
parental consent" includes complying with the verifiable
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parental consent requirements of the "Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act of 1998," 15 U.S.C. 6501, et seq.
Sec. 1349.071. (A) An application distribution provider
shall do all of the following:
(1) Request that a prospective account holder declares the
prospective account holder's age when creating an account with
the application distribution provider;
(2) Provide an account holder who is not estimated to be
an adult with the opportunity to verify that the account holder
is an adult;
(3) Provide the developer of a covered application with
the technical ability to request an age signal in which the
account holder or the account holder's parent has agreed to
share that information;
(4) Provide the developer of a covered application with
the ability to prevent account holders who are not adults from
acquiring the developer's covered application from the
application distributor, at the developer's request;
(5) Provide the capability to developers to view relevant
parental controls for covered applications through a centralized
parental controls interface and offer the developer of a covered
application the technical ability to integrate parental controls
for the developer's covered application into that centralized
interface;
(6) Impose the same, substantially the same, or greater
restrictions and obligations on covered applications for which
the application distribution provider is also the developer as
it does on third-party covered applications or application
distribution providers in complying with sections 1349.07 to
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1349.076 of the Revised Code;
(7) Not use data collected from third parties in the
course of compliance with sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of the
Revised Code to give the application distribution provider
preference relative to those of third parties, or to otherwise
use the data in an anti-competitive manner.
(B) An application distribution provider may use
commercially reasonable efforts to estimate the age category of
an account holder with a reasonable level of certainty
proportionate to the risks that arise from access to and use of
the relevant service or portion thereof.
Sec. 1349.072. (A) A developer of a covered application
shall do all of the following:
(1) Report to the application distribution provider
whether the developer's applications provide a different
experience for account holders that are adults than for account
holders that are minors;
(2) Provide tools to help parents support minors using the
developer's covered applications;
(3) Use commercially reasonable efforts to estimate the
age category of an account holder with a reasonable level of
certainty proportionate to the risks that arise from access to
and use of the covered application or portion thereof;
(4) Make a reasonable effort, proportionate to the risks,
to ensure that account holders who are minors cannot engage in
any activity that is restricted for adults only;
(5) Obtain verifiable parental consent prior to permitting
minor account holders to access content or features that the
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developer has designated as unsuitable for minors without
parental guidance or supervision;
(6) Not deliver personalized advertising to minors.
(B) If the developer requests an age signal facilitated by
an application distributor, the developer shall do all of the
following:
(1) Request the minimum amount of information needed for
the purposes of complying with sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of
the Revised Code;
(2) Not share the information obtained from the age signal
with third parties, unless necessary to implement safety
measures or privacy protections for minors, or unless otherwise
required to do so by law;
(3) Not use the age signal for any purpose beyond that
required by sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of the Revised Code.
Sec. 1349.073. (A) An operating system provider shall do
all of the following:
(1) Request a prospective account holder to declare the
prospective account holder's age when creating an account with
the operating system provider;
(2) Provide an account holder who is estimated not to be
an adult with the opportunity to verify that the account holder
is an adult;
(3) Enable parents of a minor account holder to activate
and control a filter setting for the minor account holder;
(4) Provide internet browsers and search engines with the
technical ability to read a setting that indicates the state of
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the filter.
(B) An operating system provider may use commercially
reasonable efforts to estimate the age category of an account
holder with a reasonable level of certainty proportionate to the
risks that arise from access to and use of the relevant service
or portion thereof.
Sec. 1349.074. An internet browser or search engine shall
do all of the following:
(A) Provide a filter that may be enabled by an account
holder or the account holder's parent;
(B) Where available, read the filter setting required by
division (A)(4) of section 1349.073 of the Revised Code;
(C) Activate the filter when enabled by an account holder
or the account holder's parent via the filter settings on a
connected device;
(D) Notify the account holder when the filter blocks
access to obscene material through the internet browser or
search engine.
Sec. 1349.075. (A) An application distribution provider or
operating system provider that makes a good faith effort to
comply with sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of the Revised Code,
taking into consideration available technology, is not liable
for attempts to comply with those sections, including any of the
following with regard to the provision of an age signal:
(1) Any erroneous age signal;
(2) Any conduct by a developer of a covered application
that receives any age signal;
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(3) Failing to provide an age signal due to any reasonable
technical limitations or outages that prevent the provision of
the age signal upon request;
(4) Not providing the age signal to developers that do not
adhere to reasonable safety standards and application
distributor policies.
(B)(1) The developer is solely liable for correctly
identifying whether an application is a covered application. No
application distributor is required to proactively identify
covered applications, and an application distributor is not
liable under sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of the Revised Code in
cases in which a developer provides inaccurate information about
an application.
(2) The developer is not liable for an erroneous age
signal provided by an application distribution provider if the
developer makes a reasonable effort, taking into consideration
available technology, to properly use the age signal and carry
out other age assurance, if needed, as proportionate to the
risks presented to users by use of the developer's application.
Sec. 1349.076. (A) The attorney general may initiate an
action and seek a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars
for each violation of sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of the
Revised Code.
(B) The attorney general has exclusive authority to
enforce sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of the Revised Code.
(C) Sections 1349.07 to 1349.076 of the Revised Code shall
not be construed to provide a private right of action with
respect to any act or practice described under those sections.
Section 2. Section 1 of this act takes effect one year
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after the effective date of this section. 217