A trio of child online safety bills became law in Arkansas this week. Meanwhile, in Texas, the House passed a kids safety measure Thursday.
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) sued social media platform Snap for violating a kids social media law and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), his office announced Tuesday. Enacted last year, HB-3 prohibits kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to create accounts, among other things.
Nearly the entire Florida Senate supported a social media decryption bill that the Electronic Frontier Foundation condemned as “dangerous and dumb” (see 2504110042).
Restricting children's social media access “does not violate the First Amendment,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) said Monday at the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida in case 4:24-cv-438-MW-MAF.
Oregon privacy regulators noticed a spike in consumers complaining about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and how the government may be handing their personal information, the state DOJ said Monday. Also, the department released a Q1 2025 report on enforcement of the state’s comprehensive privacy law.
A University of Iowa student alleged that the college violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by not adequately protecting the online security and privacy of its students. Plaintiff Marc Muklewicz filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern Iowa on April 15, saying the university violated data security protocols and student privacy.
South Carolina senators are undaunted by potential lawsuits against a proposed state law requiring social media companies to adopt an age-appropriate design code (AADC), said Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee members at a livestreamed hearing Monday. The panel voted unanimously by voice to send the identical S-268 and H-3431 to the Senate floor. The House passed an earlier version of H-3431 in February (see 2502200059).
Increased scrutiny at the U.S. border poses heightened digital privacy risks for foreign nationals and even U.S. citizens entering the country, said John Francisco, a lawyer at Woods Rogers, said in a blog Friday.
Trade association NetChoice asked the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee on Thursday to follow the lead of the decision in NetChoice v. Yost and order a preliminary injunction on a law that requires age verification before a person can access social media. The Yost case, decided Wednesday, enjoined an Ohio law requiring age verification on First Amendment grounds (see 2504160049).
The U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled on Friday that social media platform X's copyright case against a data-scraping company will continue, and it allowed some but not all of data scraper Bright Data's counterclaims to continue as well. "The scraper states plausible claims for relief," the court said.