Social media age verification laws by country

Multiple countries have passed laws to require age verification for social media services as an attempt to address certain harms on social media.^[1][2][3] These bills and laws variety a lot with some of them restricting access to only to certain features or distinguish between different users online and which could lead to companies requiring age verification to have such restrictions such as the Kids Online Safety Act or require it outright and ban users under a certain age such as the Online Safety Amendment in Australia which bans anyone under 16 from holding a social media account including YouTube.^[4][5]

Africa

Kenya

In May 2025 the Communication Authority of Kenya published guidelines on online safety for children one of the requirements for these guidelines was to require Application Service Providers (ASPs) and Content Service Providers (CSPs) have age verification to restrict harmful content. Alongside this the Kenya Parliament introduced the Kenya Information and Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2025 which requires age verification for social media services such as Facebook or Whatsapp, however as of August 2025 the bill proposed by the Parliament hasn't passed and the status of the guidelines by the Communications Authority remain unclear.^[6][7]

Asia

India

In 2025 the ZEP Foundation petitioned the Supreme Court of India for social media regulation. The court denied the request to ban children under 13 from social media saying it was something for the parliament to do and not the courts, however granted the foundations request to propose to the Central Government to require age verification for social media and prohibit usage for those under 16 or 18 years old and set an 8-week deadline, however as of September 2025 no laws have passed that resemble what the petition requested in India.^[8][9][10]

Indonesia

Since January 2025 the Indonesian Government has been looking into the idea of setting a minimum age to use social media as well as other protections that would be similar to Australia's, however, hasn't set a minimum age yet for social media and this proposal has been supported by the public been meant with caution.^[11][12][13]

Pakistan

In July 2025 a bill was introduced in the Pakistan Senate that would ban social media for minors under 16 and that platforms must implement age verification that are affected by the bill, however unlike other bills that have been either introduced or passed in countries like Australia or New Zealand were the penalties only apply to platforms. The Pakistan version of the under 16 ban also imprisons anyone who makes a social media account for a minor for up to 6 months. The bill however was later withdrawn in August of 2025 after controversy; however, the Pakistani Government is still looking to implement a lower age limit of 13 or 14 for social media access and removing the 6 months imprisonment penalty.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Europe

Denmark

On 7 October 2025 the Danish prime minister announced that the government was looking into banning social media for minors under 15 but have stated that they will likely include an exemption for those aged 13 or 14 with parental consent. The government plans to implement this policy as early as 2026.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}

France

On 29 June 2023 France passed a law which would require parental consent for anyone under 15 to use social media, however the bill passed without a clear effective date, however stated that they would apply it as soon as possible. If the bill does go into effect, then companies would be fined up to one percent of their revenue if they do not comply with the law.^[23][24][25] Since this law has passed the President of France Emmanuel Macron has said he could look into a complete ban for anyone under 15 to use social media.^[26][27]

Norway

In Late 2024 the Norwegian Government announced it was setting a minimum age of 15 for social media and would include an age verification barrier to access social media services.^[2][28] In June 2025 the Government would introduce the bill to set the age limit for consultation and the deadline for this consultation is 7 October 2025.^[29][30]

United Kingdom

Main article: Online Safety Act 2023

The Online Safety Act 2023 requires providers of "user-to-user" services (which includes many popular social media services) prevent access by children of content deemed harmful, including but not limited to pornographic content. To do this, platforms including Reddit^[31] and Bluesky^[32] have implemented age verification for UK users.

North America

United States

Federal level

Since 2022 multiple members of congress have introduced bills that would either require age verification for social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram or heavily lean towards it even if it doesn't require it outright.

Kids Online Safety Act

The Kids Online Safety Act also known as KOSA is a bill in United States Congress that require online platforms not just social media companies that are likely to be used by children to reduce addiction and online harms to them though a duty of care, however the bill has been criticize by multiple civil rights groups such the ACLU and EFF for potentially leading online censorship and services using age verification.^{[33][34][35][36]}

Kids Off Social Media Act

The Kids Off Social Media Act is a bill that was introduced originally in April 2024, however died before advancing. It was later reintroduced in January 2025 and advanced out of committee in February 2025 as of June 2025 the bill has been placed on the general calendar meaning it can be taken up for a vote at any time. The bill bans anyone under 13 from having a social media account and bans certain algorithmic recommendations for anyone under 17, those opposed to it such as the ACLU and Centers for Democracy and Technology have warned that the bill could lead to social media platforms it effects into doing age verification.^{[37][38][39][40][41]}

Protecting Kids on Social Media Act

In April 2023 the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act was introduced and it just like the Kids Off Social Media Act bans social media services for children under 13 and also bans algorithmic recommendations but instead of banning them for those under 17, it bans it for all minors under 18 and requires parental consent to use social media if the person creating the account is 13 - 17 years old. The bill was opposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation because the age verification part of bill would invade privacy rights and would make it easier for the government to identify people and that the parental consent provision could be problematic for older minors, the bill has since died and hasn't been reintroduced.^[42][43][44]

State level

For more info, see Social media age verification laws in the United States.

Since 2022 multiple states have passed laws requiring age verification for social media services such as California, Utah and Florida, however very few have taken effect due to legal challenges against them. The only two exceptions to this are Tennessee and Mississippi.^{[45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]} The law in Tennessee took effect after a Federal Judge denied a request to block the law in June 2025 and Mississippi's law HB 1126 was originally blocked from taking effect, however in July 2025 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the order blocking the law this then led to the ones challenging the law NetChoice to asked the U.S Supreme Court to block the law again which it denied in August. What has resulted from this is that Nextdoor has banned anyone under 18 from making an account on their service in Tennessee and Bluesky has blocked Mississippi users entirely.^{[53][54][55][56][57]} So far over 14 states have passed laws like this and over 32 have introduced them, the only states that haven't introduced nor passed one are Kansas, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Delaware. So far three states have rejected bills thar propose age verification for social media them being Colorado, Montana and Maine.

Social media age verification by state

State	Authority	Signed	Effective	Notes
California	Gavin Newsom	September 15, 2022 (AB 2273) September 20, 2024 (SB 976)	Preliminarily Enjoined (AB 2273) and SB 976 (Partly enjoined)	On September 15, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2273 into law, which requires websites which make over $25 million a year or have over 100,000 users and which are likely to be used by children to file Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIAs) to determine how safe their services are and require age estimation for all visitors. The law was later blocked by Federal Judge Beth Labson Freemen in September 2023 for violating the First Amendment.[58][59] California appealed, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling on the DPIA section of the law and vacated the rest and returned back to the Trial Court in August 2024.[60] Judge Freemen blocked the law again completely in March 2025.[61] On September 20, 2024, Governor Newsom signed another law SB 976, which requires online services to not give anyone under 18 an addictive feed for more than an hour per day without parental consent and blocks notification between 12 am and 6 am and during school days between 8 am to 3 pm; those under 18 must also have default settings and social media companies must put out some disclosures.[62] In December 2024, Federal Judge Edward Davila blocked the law's notifications provisions as well as the disclosures provisions, however, let the rest of the law take effect including the age verification provision.[63] NetChoice, the ones challenging the law, asked the court to block it completely pending appeal. Judge Davila granted this request for 30 days, so that the Ninth Circuit could review the law pending appeal; the Ninth Circuit would later extend the injunction.[64][65] There was a hearing on the law on April 2, 2025, and a decision remains pending from the Appellate court.[66] On September 9, 2025, the three judge panel of the Appellate court ruled unanimously that NetChoice didn't have standing to assert the rights of its users and that they didn't have standing to challenge the provisions for addictive personalized feeds, and that the private mode for minors which allows only people the minor knows to view their post was constitutional, however ruled that not showing likes to minors without parental consent was unconstitutional.[67]
Utah	Spencer Cox	March 23, 2023	Preliminarily enjoined	On March 23, 2023, Governor Spencer Cox signed the Utah Social Media Regulation Act also known as SB 152 and HB 311. SB 152 requires social media companies with more than 5 million users to conduct age verification on all users and require parental consent for those under 18 years of age and cannot allow a minor on a social media platform between 10:30 pm - 6:30 pm MST.[68][69] HB 311 allows parents of minors who have been harmed by addiction from social media to sue and collect up to 250,000 dollars in damages with a rebuttable presumption that if the minor was under 16 that harm occurred was because of social media. In December 2023 the social media trade association NetChoice sued Utah over the law claiming that it violated the First Amendment.[70] In response to this Utah amended its social media laws with SB 194 and HB 494 to avoid the law being deemed unconstitutional the governor signed these amendments in March 2024. The new laws removed the curfew of social media of 10:30 pm - 6:30 am and removed the provisions of it that required parental consent to open a social media account. However, youth accounts are still restricted from accessing certain features such as autoplay or direct messaging.[71] However, this wouldn't avoid the constitutional issues as the laws were declared unconstitutional by Chief Judge Robert Shelby on September 10, 2024 by granting NetChoice's request for a Preliminary Injunction basically blocking the laws enforcement pending any further legal proceedings against the law.[72]
Arkansas	Sarah Huckabee Sanders	April 11, 2023	Permanently enjoined	In April 2023 Arkansas passed SB 396 which requires certain social such as Facebook and Twitter media platforms to verify the age of users and require parental consent for those under 18 the law would have included websites such as YouTube but would later be exempt after lobbying.[73][74] The law was blocked on August 31, 2023, by Judge Timothy L. Brooks. and would permanently block the law in March 2025.[75][76]
Texas	Greg Abbott	June 13, 2023	Partly enjoined	On June 13, 2023, Texas passed the SCOPE Act also known as HB 18 into law and was set to take effect in September 2024.[77] The law requires websites to verify the parent or guardian of a minor under 18 if they want to join an online service that is covered by the SCOPE Act and those covered websites must also have some level of parental controls over the minors account and websites must filter out a vague list of harmful subjects for minors as well as block targeted advertisements for minors.[78] However, multiple sections of the law were blocked by Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S District Court for the Western District of Texas. The first sections he blocked was in the case Computer & Communications Industry Association v. Paxton where he blocked the filters section of bill on August 30, 2024.[79] He would then later block the targeted advertisements and age verification sections of the law on February 7, 2025 in the case Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton.[80] Both the CCIA and SEAT cases are now pending in the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Louisiana	John Bel Edwards	June 28, 2023	July 1, 2025	On June 28, 2023, SB 162 was passed into law in the state of Louisiana which requires social media platforms to verify age of all users and require parental consent for those under 16 years of age.[81][82][83] Once parental consent is granted the parent or guardian is able to supervise the minors account such being able to view the privacy settings or set breaks on the account.[84] The laws effective date was originally July 1, 2024, but was delayed to July 1, 2025, after Louisiana passed a law banning targeted advertisements for those under 18 which would also take effect on July 1, 2025.[85] In March 2025 NetChoice sued over both SB 162 and HB 577 during the proceedings of the lawsuit Netchoice was temporally in controversy because the Attorney General of Louisiana Liz Murrill claimed that Netchoice's expert Dr. Anthony Bean had submitted an ai generated declaration in the case and sought to remove his declaration.[86][87] Netchoice has since said that this was the first time they used Dr. Bean for any of their cases but are confident they will win their case still.[88]
Ohio	Mike DeWine	July 4, 2023	Permanently enjoined	In July 2023 Governor Mike DeWine signed HB 33 which was the states 2024 - 2025 fiscal bill which included the Social Media Parental Notification Act.[89] The act was put in fiscal bill by former Lieutenant Governor of Ohio Jon Husted as a way to address potential harms on social media services.[90] The law which is codified as 1349.09 and it requires operators of online services to not allow minors under 16 to use their services unless they have parental consent and can revoke parental consent if they choose to.[91] On April 16, 2025, the law was declared unconstitutional in its entirety and permanently blocked by Judge Algenon L. Marbley after he previously granted a Temporary Restraining Order in January 2024 and a Preliminary Injunction in February of the same year.[92][93][94]
Florida	Ron DeSantis	March 25, 2024	Preliminarily enjoined	In March 2024 Florida passed HB 3 which is codified as 501.1736 and requires any social media or gaming service that have at least 10 percent of users under 16 who use their service for at least 2 hours a day to ban those under 14 from using their service and require parental consent for those 14 or 15 years old. On March 13, 2025, Chief Judge Mark E. Walker denied a request to block the law because it was unclear if the law applied to any members of the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) or Netchoice.[95][96][97] He would later in June 2025 grant an amended request to block the law after the Plaintiffs challenging the law submitted evidence that at least some of their members were affected by the act. Florida had also attempted to enforce the law against Snapchat after the Judge denied the first request to block it.[98][99] The state after the judge granted the request to block the law quickly appealed to the U.S Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.[100]
Georgia (U.S. state)	Brian Kemp	April 23, 2024	Preliminarily enjoined	In April 2024 Georgia passed SB 351 codified as §39-6-1 to §39-6-5 which requires social media companies to verify the age of users and users under 16 must have parental consent and cannot be shown targeted advertising.[101] In June 2025 the law was blocked from taking effect after a federal judge found it to be likely unconstitutional.[102]
Mississippi	Tate Reeves	April 30, 2024	July 17, 2025	Mississippi in 2024 passed a law known as HB 1126 which requires Digital Service Providers (DSPs) to verify the age of account holders and require parental consent for those under 18. DSPs aren't allowed to collect certain data from users under 18 or show them a vaguely defined list of harmful content such as content about stalking or illegal activities.[103] In June 2024 the trade association NetChoice sued Mississippi over the law and in July 2024 federal judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden blocked the law from taking effect.[104][105] Mississippi would then appeal the ruling and in April 2025 the Fifth Circuit would vacate the injunction blocking Mississippi's law because the court didn't review the law correctly under the Supreme Court's decision in Moody v. NetChoice.[106] NetChoice would then file an amended complaint and won a new injunction In June 2025. Mississippi once again appealed and in July 2025 the Fifth Circuit stayed the order for the second injunction.[53][54] NetChoice would then appeal to the U.S Supreme Court which denied the request to block Mississippi's law, however Justice Kavanaugh concurred stating he believed that NetChoice would succeed on the merits, however, didn't show any evidence that a temporary order in favor of the state would harm them.[107][55] In response to this the social networking app Bluesky blocked access to Mississippi in August 2025.[57]
Tennessee	Bill Lee	May 2, 2024	January 1, 2025	In 2024 Tennesse passed the Protecting Kids from Social Media Act also known as HB 1891. The law requires social media to verify the age of users and require parental consent for users under 18.[108] On June 18, 2025, Judge Eli Richardson denied a preliminary injunction to block the law because NetChoice had not shown that its members would face irreparable harm without an injunction.[53]
New York	Kathy Hochul	June 20, 2024	180 days after guidance is given by the Attorney General of New York.	In 2024 New York passed a law known as the SAFE For Kids Act that requires parental consent for minors under 18 to use certain social media feeds and restrict notifications between the hours of 12:00 am - 6:00 am.[109][110]
Virginia	Glenn Youngkin	May 2, 2025	January 1, 2026	SB 854 codified as §59.1-577.1 is an amendment to the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act and the amendment to it requires social media companies to estimate the age of users and limit usage to one hour per day per app for users under 16 and the time limit can be increased with parental consent.[111][112]
Nebraska	Jim Pillen	May 20, 2025	July 1, 2026	In May 2025 Nebraska passed the Parental Rights in Social Media Act codified as §86-1701 - §86-1705 requires certain social media platforms to verify the age of users and require parental consent for accounts under 18 and parents are able to have some level of control over teen accounts.[113]
Vermont	Phil Scott	June 12, 2025	January 1, 2027	In June 2025 Vermont passed the Vermont Age-Appropriate Design Code which requires businesses that operate or have a majority of its revenue from Vermont to verify the age of users and must impose a minimum duty of care by ensuring that a minor's personal data doesn't lead to harm or discrimination and covered operators must set all privacy settings by default. The Attorney General of Vermont is set to set rules for age verification and compliance and enforces the law.[114][115][116]

Rejected Social media age verification bill in the United States

The list below is of bills that propose to require age verification to use social media platforms but were rejected this list doesn't include bills that intentionally rejected either by being vetoed by the governor and that veto not being overturned or voted down in the state's legislature.

States	Bill	Rejected by	Notes
Colorado	HB 25-086	Governor Jared Polis	In 2025 HB 25-086 was introduced to the Colorado State Legislature which requires social media platforms to disclose certain information about their polices among these disclosure requirements was that platforms had to show they users who did provide their true age. On April 24, 2025, Governor Jared Polis vetoed the bill calling the bill fatally flawed and erodes privacy. The next day the Senate overrode his veto by a vote of 29-6, however the bill died in the Colorado House of Representatives by a vote of 51-13.[117][118][119][120]
Maine	LD 844	Maine State Legislature	In 2025 LD 844 was introduced in the Maine State Legislature and requires age verification for social media services and ban all users under 14 and require parental consent for users aged 14 or 15. A violation of the law results in a fine of 10,000 per violation and 25,000 dollars per violation if the company has violated the law more than once. The Maine State Legislature placed an ought not to pass motion on the bill which was accepted effectively meaning the bill couldn't go forward for this term in the Legislature.[121][122]
Montana	HB 925	Montana State Legislature	During the legislative session for 2025 in Montana HB 925 was introduced. The bill required social media companies to require age assurance that was at least 95% accurate and set default settings on an account assigned to someone under 18 and these default settings couldn't be changed without parental consent. It would also be enforced though Montana Department of Justice under §30-14-103 of Montana Code and violating §30-14-103 of Montana Code can result of fines 10,000 dollars per violation and up to one year in prison.[123][124][125][126] The bill passed the House committee by a vote of 12-8 and passed the full House by a vote of 54-44. However, was tabled in the Senate committee it was assigned to by a vote of 11-1. The reason for this unknown, however likely has to do with fact that similar laws in states such as Utah or Ohio have been found Unconstitutional under the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution.[127]

Canada

Quebec and Nova Scotia

In May 2025 a committee of Quebec Legislative members recommended that social media be banned for those under 14 without parental consent, however, it is unclear if they plan on introduces legislation to implement this policy.^[128][129] Liberals in Nova Scotia has also said they plan on introducing a bill to ban anyone under 16 from social media.^[130]

South America

Brazil

In September 2025 Brazil passed a law that would require social media companies to implement age verification and link accounts under 16 with their parents and only allow children access to content that is intended for them, the law also requires parental consent to download apps for minors aged between 12 and 18 years old and bans lootboxes in video games. If platforms don't comply they can be fined up to 50 million reais. The law is expected to take effect in March 2026.^[131][132]

Oceania

Australia

Main article: Online Safety Amendment

In December 2024 Australia passed the online safety amendment which requires social media companies such Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and X (Formerly Twitter) to take reasonable steps to prohibit minors under 16 from owning accounts, YouTube was originally excluded, however was later included and it's also unclear on how age verification will be done under the ban as a trial for age verification found there were no barriers in implementing age verification however the eSafety Commissioner said in the most recent report that age verification isn't required and that the law would take effect in steps. Companies that don't comply can be fined up to 50 million AUD and is enforced by the eSafety Commissioner, the ban is expected to take effect on 10 December 2025.^{[1][133][134][135]}

Papua New Guinea

In October 2025 the government of Papua New Guinea approved its 2025 social media policy which including's a plan to require users in Papua New Guinea to verify their age to prove they are 14 years old or older to access social media platforms such as TikTok or Instagram, the age verification is done via SevisPass digital ID. Platforms must also set up locations in the country and be closely monitored for supposed harmful content. The Government claims the reason for the policy is crackdown on fake news and scams, however the policy has been criticized for potentially limiting free speech.^{[136][137][138]}

New Zealand

In inspiration of Australia's Online Safety Amendment, the Nationals Party of New Zealand along with the Prime Minister of New Zealand Christopher Luxon introduced the Social Media (Age-Restricted Users) Bill in May of 2025 which just like its Australian counterpart bans social media accounts for children under 16, however unlike its counterpart its fines aren't so large with the maximum fine that can be imposed being 2 million NZD (1.2 million USD).^{[139][140][141]}

See also

• Parental controls