Georgia SB 351: Social Media Rules and School Requirements

Georgia SB 351, the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act of 2024, bars social media platforms from letting anyone under 16 hold an account without a parent’s or guardian’s express consent, requires public schools to block social media on school-operated devices and networks, strengthens cyberbullying policies, and mandates online safety instruction in grades six through twelve. The governor signed it on April 23, 2024, and its requirements phase in between July 2025 and July 2026.¹

What the Law Requires of Social Media Platforms

The core rule is simple. A social media platform cannot permit a Georgia user under 16 to create or maintain an account without the express consent of a parent or legal guardian. Express consent means affirmative permission, not a line tucked inside a terms-of-service click-through.

The Georgia Attorney General enforces the requirement and can seek up to $2,500 per violation against a platform that lets under-16 users hold accounts without that verified consent.¹ The requirement is in force now, so any platform still allowing under-16 sign-ups in Georgia without parental approval is already exposed.

Verifying a minor’s age or a parent’s identity means collecting sensitive information, and SB 351 restricts what platforms can do with it. Personal data gathered during the consent or verification process cannot be used for any purpose other than confirming age, and it must be deleted once verification is complete rather than stored, sold, or repurposed for marketing.

What Changes in Georgia Schools

Every local school governing body has to adopt two separate policies on two separate timelines.

By October 1, 2025, each district must have an acceptable-use policy covering school equipment. The policy must prohibit using school-provided devices to access obscene material, child pornography, or material harmful to minors.

By April 1, 2026, each district must have a social media policy that blocks students from accessing social media platforms through any school-operated device or network.¹ That reach includes school-owned laptops, tablets, and desktops, and it extends to the school’s Wi-Fi network even when a student connects a personal phone. Districts will need filtering technology that covers the whole network, not just district-owned hardware, and they are responsible for keeping that filtering current as new platforms appear.

There is one narrow exception. If a teacher or administrator directs a student to use a social media platform for a specific instructional purpose, that access is allowed. A student cannot invoke the exception on their own; the educator has to direct the activity.

Cyberbullying Policy Updates

SB 351 revises O.C.G.A. § 20-2-751.4, the state’s cyberbullying statute. The underlying definition already covers bullying through electronic communication, including cellphones, computers, social media, text messages, and chat services, and it applies on school property, on school vehicles, at designated bus stops, at school-related functions, and through school computer networks or equipment.²

By July 1, 2026, each local board must adopt updated antibullying policies and evaluate technology solutions that can help prevent cyberbullying on school equipment. Boards must also maintain a method for notifying the parent or guardian of both the student who committed the bullying and the student who was targeted.² The policy has to be posted on the district website and included in student handbooks, with clearly defined disciplinary consequences and a reporting mechanism families can use.

Digital Citizenship Instruction

The Georgia Department of Education must develop model programs for teaching students in grades six through twelve about online safety. The curriculum addresses the social, emotional, and physical effects of social media use, its impact on mental health, how disinformation spreads, and the risks of sharing personal material online.¹

That is a step up from the earlier framework. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-149 tasks the Department with developing a general online safety model program but leaves adoption optional for local boards.³ SB 351 also folds responsible digital citizenship and safe use of technology, the internet, and social media into Georgia’s character education requirements beginning with the 2025–2026 school year, so this instruction is no longer optional. Districts can supplement the state materials with their own resources.

A Separate Age Verification Rule for Harmful Material

Parents reading about SB 351 often run into a second Georgia rule and assume it is the same law. It is not. Under O.C.G.A. § 39-5-5, which took effect July 1, 2025, commercial entities operating websites where a substantial portion of the content is harmful to minors must verify that visitors are at least 18 before granting access. Acceptable methods include a digitized driver’s license, other government-issued identification, or any commercially reasonable method meeting the National Institute of Standards and Technology Identity Assurance Level 2 standard. Fines run up to $10,000 per violation.⁴

That statute targets sites with adult content and uses an age-18 threshold. SB 351’s parental-consent rule targets everyday social media platforms and uses an age-16 threshold. A platform could be subject to both if it meets both definitions, but the two rules are separate tracks with separate penalties.

Deadlines at a Glance

July 1, 2025: age-verification requirements for websites hosting material harmful to minors take effect under § 39-5-5.
October 1, 2025: local school governing bodies must have adopted acceptable-use policies for school equipment.
2025–2026 school year: character education must incorporate digital citizenship and safe technology use.
April 1, 2026: local school governing bodies must have adopted social media policies blocking student access on school-operated equipment and networks.
July 1, 2026: local boards must have evaluated technology solutions for preventing cyberbullying on school equipment and adopted updated antibullying policies.

The social media parental-consent requirement on platforms is already in effect, independent of these school deadlines.

How SB 351 Fits with Federal Law

SB 351 layers on top of federal rules rather than replacing them. The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act requires websites and online services to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. Georgia extends a parental-consent requirement up to age 16 for social media accounts specifically. A platform operating in Georgia has to comply with both: COPPA for data collection from anyone under 13, and SB 351 for social media account creation by anyone under 16.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act generally shields platforms from liability for content their users post and protects good-faith efforts to restrict access to objectionable material.⁵ Whether Section 230 preempts portions of state social media laws is a live legal question nationally. Age-verification and parental-consent requirements likely sit outside Section 230’s scope because they regulate how a platform grants access, not whether the platform is liable for what users post.

For Georgia schools that take federal E-rate discounts, the Children’s Internet Protection Act already requires filtering of obscene images, child pornography, and material harmful to minors, along with internet safety policies and instruction on appropriate online behavior.⁶ SB 351 reaches further by targeting social media platforms as a category, so a CIPA-compliant district still has to confirm its filters block social media even when the platform itself hosts nothing that qualifies as harmful to minors.

1
Georgia General Assembly. Senate Bill 351
2
Justia. Georgia Code 20-2-751.4 – Policies Prohibiting Bullying and Cyberbullying Required; Enforcement of Policies Including Assignment to Alternative School; Notice; Antibullying Training Programs and Materials; Limitation of Liability; Noncompliance
3
Justia. Georgia Code 20-2-149 – Program for Educating Students Regarding Online Internet Safety
4
Georgia Code. Georgia Code 39-5-5 – Commercial Entity Age Verification; Access to Material Harmful to Minors; Data Retention; Penalties; Exclusions
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 230 – Protection for Private Blocking and Screening of Offensive Material
6
Federal Communications Commission. Children’s Internet Protection Act