When Ohio’s new age verification law took effect at the end of September, most adult sites shrugged and carried on as if nothing had changed. But one platform Bluesky, the fast-growing social network backed by Jack Dorsey decided to do the opposite.
Instead of ignoring the law, Bluesky began enforcing age checks for users in Ohio, making it one of the few major online platforms to actively comply with the state’s new rules. It’s a bold move in a digital landscape where compliance is rare and the boundaries of regulation are increasingly blurred.
A New Law With Old Problems
The law, which came into force on September 30, aims to protect minors from accessing explicit or “obscene” material online. It requires any website or online service hosting such content to verify that users are over 18 not just with a click of a checkbox, but through actual ID or third-party verification.
On paper, it’s hard to argue with the intent. No parent wants their kid stumbling into adult content. But as always, what sounds simple in theory quickly becomes tangled in practice. The internet isn’t confined by state borders, and the term “obscene” is open to interpretation. From social media to adult entertainment, it’s unclear who exactly falls under the law’s scope.
Bluesky Steps Up While Others Look Away
Bluesky, which has positioned itself as a free and decentralized alternative to Twitter, surprised many by implementing a real age-verification system for Ohio users. Before accessing potentially adult or explicit material, users must now confirm their age through an extra verification step.
While Bluesky didn’t release extensive details on how its system works, users in Ohio began noticing prompts and restricted content access shortly after the law went live. It’s a rare show of proactive compliance in a tech world that usually prefers to wait things out.
Meanwhile, the rest of the internet has largely ignored the regulation. According to a recent review, only two of the 58 most visited adult sites accessible in Ohio have introduced any kind of formal age verification. Most continue to operate normally, while a few have chosen to simply block Ohio-based traffic rather than adapt.
The Privacy Trade-Off
Bluesky’s decision shines a light on the uncomfortable balance between protection and privacy. To verify someone’s age online, you need data and collecting data means creating risk. Users are understandably uneasy about submitting IDs or personal information to platforms, especially given how often data breaches make headlines.
Critics argue that while the law’s goal is noble, it opens the door to a slippery slope. Once governments normalize the idea that you must show identification to access certain online content, it’s hard to draw the line. Where does the monitoring stop?
Still, Bluesky’s approach may help set a precedent for how online platforms can strike a middle ground: taking legal obligations seriously without turning into surveillance machines.
A Divided Digital Landscape
Ohio isn’t alone in this fight. Similar age verification laws have already appeared in Louisiana, Texas, and Utah each facing their own backlash from tech companies and digital rights groups. For now, enforcement remains inconsistent, and the biggest players seem content to gamble on being ignored.
But Bluesky’s choice may end up shaping how others respond. If the platform’s compliance doesn’t cause mass user backlash and if it avoids the legal headaches plaguing other sites it might convince more companies to follow suit.
For now, though, Ohio’s online world feels like a patchwork: a few sites taking the law seriously, most pretending it doesn’t exist, and one social network Bluesky standing out for actually doing something about it.
Whether that makes Bluesky a responsible innovator or a cautionary tale depends on how the next few months unfold. But one thing’s for sure: the age of the wild, unregulated internet is fading fast, and Ohio might just be the first real battleground in that shift.
