NC Senate OKs teen social media ban, Batch pushes to go further

The North Carolina Senate voted unanimously June 10 to bar children under 14 years old from holding accounts on social media platforms the state deems addictive.

House Bill 301 requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to open social media accounts and applies to platforms that meet the measure’s criteria for addictive design. Younger teens with existing accounts would need parental permission or face having those accounts deleted.

The measure also includes classroom provisions, directing the State Board of Education to adopt AI literacy standards within the K-12 computer science curriculum and requiring teacher training developed by the Friday Institute at NC State University. Republican leaders said funding for the training is planned for the upcoming state budget, which has yet to be released.

The NC Department of Justice could seek civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation, and families could sue for damages up to $10,000, under the bill.

“This bill provides common-sense guardrails to help children, parents, and educators navigate the digital world safely,” said Sen. Dana Jones, R-Forsyth, who carried the bill in the Senate.

Senate Democrats wanted the bill to go further. Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, led that effort.

Batch offered the most sweeping of four Democratic amendments. Her proposal would have extended the parental-consent requirement in the bill to 16- and 17-year-olds and imposed a “duty of loyalty” on AI chatbot companies to prevent their products from encouraging self-harm.

The amendment also would have increased criminal penalties for AI-generated sexual images of children and required disclosure when influencers are paid to promote products or when ads use AI-generated content.

Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, asked Batch to withdraw the amendment so its provisions could be studied in committee as a separate bill, saying some elements might win Republican agreement with more time. Batch declined, and the amendment failed. Republican senators signaled the chatbot and AI-image provisions could return as standalone legislation.

Republicans rejected all four amendments on party-line votes before passing the bill itself without a dissenting vote.

“The addiction at older ages is actually even more palpable,” Batch said, citing federal research she said links social media use in early adolescence to lower reading and memory scores two years later. “This is an earthquake in the developing minds of our children who will have long-term consequences if we don’t act.”

Batch pointed to cases that have made national news in which children were encouraged toward self-harm by AI chatbots. 

“There are AI bots… where children have sought out connection with AI bots that end up encouraging them to self-harm and to commit suicide,” she said. “And some children have actually done that.”

Batch was involved with social media on another front this week. On June 11, she defended a profanity-laced video criticizing Republicans over the budget delay — posted to a fellow Democratic representative’s Instagram account — as “satire” and said constituents were “actually happy that we are showing their indignation for Republican failure.”

The stipulations in the bill fall into contested legal territory. Similar laws in at least eight states have drawn First Amendment challenges, legislative staff told a Senate committee in April, and Florida’s statute — which the language of HB 301 closely tracks — remains before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Separately, the state attorney general’s office is pursuing lawsuits against TikTok and Meta over harms to young people’s mental health.

The House passed an earlier version 106-6 in May 2025. HB 301 now returns to the House for a final concurrence vote before heading to Gov. Josh Stein’s desk.

“NC Senate OKs teen social media ban, Batch pushes to go further” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.