On Might 20, 2025, Nebraska Governor Pillen authorised LB 383, which imposes a broad vary of restrictions on minors’ entry on-line. Along with a ban on synthetic intelligence-generated little one pornography, the legislation additionally requires parental controls over minor social media accounts. Nebraska joins no less than two different states which have handed bans on social media for minors with out parental consent this yr.
Of observe, a piece of LB 383 referred to as the Parental Rights in Social Media Act (the “Act”) outlines parental rights over their kids’s social media accounts. Key provisions and definitions are beneath. The next provisions of the Act change into efficient on July 1, 2026.
- “Social Media Platform”: The time period is broadly outlined as “a web site or Web software that enables an individual to create an account and permits an account holder to speak with different account holders and customers by means of posts.” “Posts” shouldn’t be outlined, however the definition notably excludes on-line platforms like e-mail companies or on-line buying web sites and companies that consist primarily of preselected content material the place interactive performance is incidental to such content material.
- “Minor”: A minor is outlined as a Nebraska resident “who is thought or moderately believed by a social media platform to be below eighteen years of age” and isn’t emancipated.
- Age Verification for Minors: Minors is probably not account holders on a social media platform until there may be age verification, and their mother or father supplies specific consent. The statute requires a “cheap age verification technique” which is outlined because the “presentation of a digitized identification card or any commercially cheap age verification technique to verify a person’s age.” A social media platform could make the most of third-party distributors as a part of this course of. Social media firms are additionally prohibited from retaining age verification info after that course of is full.
- Parental Controls: Social media firms should develop a technique for a mother or father to revoke consent. Social media firms should additionally present mother and father with strategies to oversee minor accounts together with: (i) viewing posts made by the minor; (ii) viewing responses or messages despatched to or from the minor; (iii) controlling the minor’s privateness and account settings; and (iv) monitoring or limiting the period of time that the minor spends on the platform.
- Enforcement: The Act permits (i) any particular person whose info is retained after age verification was accomplished and (ii) minors or mother and father of minors for any violation of the Act to acquire aid from the social media firm or third-party distributors, together with precise damages. The Nebraska Legal professional Basic might also implement the Act with penalties of as much as $2,500 per violation.
