NC Senate committee revives stalled social media bill for minors

A North Carolina bill imposing new restrictions on the use of social media by minors cleared a key Senate hurdle on April 29. 

The move revives a measure that passed the House 106-6 in May, with only six Democrats voting against, but stalled out in the Senate before the General Assembly’s long session ended.

The Senate Education/Higher Education Committee voted to give a favorable report to House Bill 301, Social Media Protections for Minors Under 16, sending it next to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would ban anyone under 14 from holding a social media account in North Carolina and require parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds.

If enacted, North Carolina would join a growing list of states — including Florida, Utah, Texas, and Arkansas — that have moved to restrict minors’ access to social platforms in recent years. Several of those laws are tied up in court, and the legal landscape is in flux.

“Social media and our kids — it’s the number one tool for predators to go after our children,” primary sponsor state Rep. Jeff Zenger, R-Forsyth, told the committee. “If you look at any of the studies that are happening from the psychiatry industry, there’s nobody that says the kids being on social media all the time is a great idea.”

The bill would authorize the NC Department of Justice to bring enforcement actions against violators, with civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation and damages of up to $10,000 available to affected minor account holders.

Committee members also adopted an amendment from state Sen. Dana Jones, R-Forsyth, that expanded the scope of the bill to address artificial intelligence in K-12 schools. The amendment requires age-appropriate AI literacy in state computer science standards, mandates AI training for teachers and administrators developed by NC State University’s Friday Institute by 2028, and directs the Department of Public Instruction to build a statewide framework for evaluating AI tools used in classrooms.

“This amendment equips our schools with guardrails, training, and accountability needed to embrace AI and its innovation while protecting students and maintaining trust,” Jones said.

Whitney Campbell Christiansen, an attorney representing Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, told the committee she was “very proud to support” the bill. She signaled the company is working with sponsors on a Judiciary Committee amendment to shift age verification onto app stores like Apple and Google rather than placing it solely on individual platforms.

“The app store really is the best gate to do this,” Christiansen said. “It’s also more difficult to lie about your age in the app store than it would be on a single app.”

The app-store approach also shifts the regulatory burden — and any legal exposure — away from Meta and onto Apple and Google, neither of which testified at the Senate committee hearing.

Zenger said Meta approached him after the bill cleared the House last year and provided model policy language from similar laws Meta had helped shape in Utah and Texas.

State Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, asked sponsors about First Amendment challenges to comparable laws in other states.

Legislative staff attorney Brian Gwyn told the committee that “at least eight or nine different states” have seen similar laws challenged in court, and “several of those laws, at least in early stages of litigation, have been potentially found to have First Amendment violations.”

Gwyn noted much of the language of HB 301 tracks with Florida’s statute, which remains pending before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

State Sen. Mujtaba Mohammed, D-Mecklenburg, urged colleagues to push the bill across the finish line.

“Today, the threats are not predators,” Mohammed said. “It feels like it’s the algorithms. We see teachers competing for children’s attention with the algorithms.”

“NC Senate committee revives stalled social media bill for minors” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.