- Ohio is set to enforce mandatory age verification starting on September 30, 2025
- Citizens must prove their age every time they wish to access content deemed “obscene or harmful to juveniles”
- Ohio joins over 20 US states in enforcing some form of mandatory age verification requirements
Ohio has joined the list of states to age-gate some forms of content in the name of children’s online safety.
Starting from Tuesday, September 30, 2025, Ohio citizens are required to prove they are over 18 to access adult-only websites and other platforms hosting “obscene or harmful to juveniles.”
This means that both adults and minors will need to be ready to share their most sensitive information with these online services to grant access. A requirement that has pushed users in other jurisdictions towards the best VPN apps to protect their privacy and security.
Ohio follows Arizona and over 20 more US states in passing some form of age verification law.
So far, these new obligations have fueled a debate around the balance between children’s digital safety and privacy.
Ohio’s age verification law – a long awaited milestone
Ohio’s age verification law comes as a milestone that lawmakers have been trying to pass for years. Yet, after reintroducing the provision this summer in its over 3,000-page-long budget bill, mandatory age verification was finally approved in June. Two months later, it’s the law.
As per Ohio HB 96’s provision, citizens are required to submit a photo ID or transactional data, such as employment or education records, to grant access to content that’s deemed “obscene or harmful to juveniles.” For ongoing accounts, platforms must verify users’ ages every two years.
As a Senior Policy and Advocacy Expert at the Internet Society, John Perrino told TechRadar, while it’s reasonable to require adult websites and social media platforms to take measures to prevent children from reaching explicit content, these types of laws also make people vulnerable to privacy and security risks.
He said: “It’s another thing entirely to require everyone in a state to hand over an ID and risk their online privacy and security to access legal material.”
Critics are also worried that the vague wording around what constitutes “harmful” content could also end up censoring important resources online, such as health or sexual education material.
All in all, Perrino believes that age verification requirements don’t keep people safe on their own.
“Age-based safety measures that provide default protections and give people control over the type of content they want to see are better alternatives,” he added.
“A geofence system”
Online service providers are also required to use “a geofence system” to monitor the geolocation of all internet users trying to access age-gated content.
This means that, when users’ location shows Ohio, online platforms are required to block the content until “a person’s age has been verified using reasonable age verification methods.”
While an IP address isn’t the only detail that can be used to determine a person’s location online, it’s certainly the most-used one.
If that’s the case in Ohio, circumventing tools like a virtual private network (VPN) could enable citizens to look like they’re browsing from a completely different location and bypass any of these geo-restrictions.
The ease of bypassing mandatory age checks is exactly the reason why Michigan is also targeting VPN usage with its new proposed adult content law. An outcome that would further endanger Americans’ right to privacy and security.
Commenting on this point, NordVPN‘s privacy advocate, Laura Tyrylyte, told TechRadar: “Restricting access to these technologies not only jeopardizes individual liberties but also sets a worrying precedent for increased government control over the open internet.”
While Ohio’s law doesn’t include any VPN blocking requirements, this might change if VPNs were to end up making this provision ineffective.
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chiara.castro@futurenet.com (Chiara Castro)
