Georgia age-verification & online ID laws

Bill / statute

SB 351 (2024) -- adult-content provision

Status

Enacted, blocked by court

Intrusiveness

High -- Broad reach: low or no content threshold, device/OS-level, or bundled with other verification.

Beyond its social-media rules, SB 351 required all users to verify their age before accessing sites with material harmful to minors. That provision was enjoined together with the rest of the law in NetChoice v. Carr on 2025-06-26 and never took effect; the appeal was argued in the Eleventh Circuit on 2026-03-10 (No. 25-12436) with no decision as of 2026-07-26. Many adult sites block Georgia visitors regardless of the injunction, so the practical experience for a Georgia user does not match the legal status. Note the asymmetry the State is leaning on: in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, 606 U.S. 461 (2025), the Supreme Court upheld age verification for material harmful to minors, but expressly declined to resolve whether that framework extends to general-purpose social media -- which is exactly the question the Eleventh Circuit now has.

Source: law.justia.com

Bill / statute

SB 351 (2024)

Status

Enacted, blocked by court

Effective

Jul 1, 2025

Intrusiveness

High -- Broad reach: low or no content threshold, device/OS-level, or bundled with other verification.

Sponsor

Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R)

SB 351, the Protecting Georgia's Children on Social Media Act (2024), required covered social-media platforms to verify user ages and obtain parental consent for users under 16. NetChoice filed 2025-05-01 and Judge Amy Totenberg (N.D. Ga., No. 1:25-cv-02422-AT) granted a preliminary injunction on 2025-06-26, five days before the Jul 1 implementation date, holding the Act facially unconstitutional -- its primary downfall being that it drew a content-based line between platforms hosting user-generated content and those publishing their own (789 F. Supp. 3d 1200). Georgia appealed to the Eleventh Circuit (No. 25-12436), which heard argument in Jacksonville on 2026-03-10; no decision has issued. The State argues NetChoice lacks associational standing because each member needs an individualised inquiry, and that Totenberg failed Moody by never weighing the Act's constitutional applications to young children. IMPORTANT LIMIT ON "BLOCKED": only the platform-facing provisions are enjoined. SB 351's school-district obligations sit on a separate compliance track tied to state funding rather than the First Amendment holding, and they are in force -- the Oct 1, 2025 acceptable-use-policy deadline has passed and an Apr 1, 2026 social-media-policy deadline applies. Of the comparable state laws NetChoice has challenged, only Tennessee's survived a preliminary-injunction motion, and only on irreparable-harm grounds rather than on the First Amendment merits.

Source: law.justia.com

Bill / statute

SB 540 (2026)

Status

Passed, not yet in effect

Effective

Jul 1, 2027 (approx.)

Intrusiveness

High -- Broad reach: low or no content threshold, device/OS-level, or bundled with other verification.

Sponsor

Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R)

AI companion chatbot safety act. Requires operators of AI companion chatbots to disclose they are not human, limit certain interactions with minors (no sexually explicit content or simulated romantic relationships), provide privacy tools, and adopt a suicide/self-harm response protocol. Signed by Gov. Kemp in the 2026 session; AG-enforced. This is a chatbot-safety law rather than a broad ID-check mandate.

Source: legis.ga.gov