Louisiana Social Media Laws: Privacy, Minors, and Cyberbullying

Louisiana’s social media laws cover seven distinct areas: consumer data privacy, age verification for minors, cyberbullying, nonconsensual intimate images, employer access to personal accounts, advertising disclosures, and data breach notification. Some are in force and enforceable. Others sit on the books but have been blocked by federal courts. Here’s what each one actually does.

Consumer Data Privacy

The Louisiana Consumer Privacy Act took effect on January 1, 2026. It applies to businesses that control or process the personal data of Louisiana residents and meet certain revenue or data-volume thresholds. The law uses an opt-out model rather than requiring companies to get your permission before collecting data.

As a Louisiana resident, you have four core rights under the Act:

Access and portability. You can request a copy of the personal data a company has collected about you.
Correction. You can ask a company to fix inaccurate personal data.
Deletion. You can request that a company delete your personal data.
Opt-out. You can tell a company to stop selling your personal data or using it for targeted advertising.

Covered businesses have to publish a clear privacy notice describing what categories of data they collect, why they collect it, and how you can exercise these rights. When you submit a request, the business must respond within a set timeframe or explain why it cannot.

Enforcement rests entirely with the Louisiana Attorney General. There is no private right of action, so you cannot sue a company directly under this statute. Before filing an enforcement action, the Attorney General has to give the business a cure period to fix the alleged violation.

Age Verification for Minors

Louisiana has passed several laws aimed at controlling minors’ access to social media, but the enforceability picture is unsettled.

HB 61, effective August 1, 2024, requires interactive computer services to obtain parental consent before entering into any agreement with a minor, including creating an online account. The law defines “minor” as anyone under 18 who is not emancipated and lives in Louisiana. Covered services are defined broadly to include any platform that lets users create and share content, participate in social networking, or engage in online gaming.

The Secure Online Child Interaction and Age Limitation Act required social media platforms with more than five million users to make “reasonable efforts” to verify users’ ages before letting them create accounts. Underage users needed parental consent, and platforms that failed to comply faced fines of up to $2,500 per violation, enforced by the Attorney General.

Neither framework is currently enforceable in the way the legislature intended. In NetChoice v. Murrill, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana struck down Act 456, granting a permanent injunction on First Amendment grounds. A December 2025 ruling also found the Secure Online Child Interaction and Age Limitation Act unconstitutional. The statutes remain on the books, but key provisions cannot be enforced. Future legislation or appellate rulings could shift this again.

Cyberbullying

Louisiana criminalizes cyberbullying under RS 14:40.7. The statute defines cyberbullying as sending any electronic communication with the willful intent to coerce, abuse, torment, or intimidate a person under the age of eighteen.¹ “Electronic communication” covers essentially every digital channel: email, messaging apps, social media, chat rooms, and online bulletin boards.²

A first offense carries a fine of up to $500, up to six months in jail, or both. One boundary matters here: the statute explicitly does not apply to internet service providers, telecommunications companies, or social media platforms themselves.² Platforms have no obligation under this law to cooperate with investigations or trace cyberbullying activity. Criminal liability sits on the individual who sends the harassing communication.

Separately, Louisiana schools are required to adopt bullying policies under RS 17:416.13 and to investigate incidents that affect students, including online conduct by classmates.³ That authority reaches students and school discipline, not the platforms where the conduct took place.

Nonconsensual Intimate Images

Louisiana treats the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images, often called revenge porn, as a felony under RS 14:283.2. The law applies when someone intentionally shares an image of an identifiable person over 17 whose intimate parts are exposed, where the image was obtained under circumstances in which a reasonable person would expect it to remain private, and where the person sharing it knew or should have known the subject didn’t consent. The person sharing must also have intended to harass or cause emotional distress.

Penalties reach a fine of up to $10,000, up to two years in prison, or both. Louisiana treats this more severely than many other states, which often charge a first offense as a misdemeanor.

Employer Access to Personal Accounts

Under RS 51:1953, Louisiana employers cannot demand access to your personal online accounts. An employer cannot request or require that you disclose any username, password, or other login credentials for a personal account. An employer also cannot fire you, discipline you, refuse to hire you, or threaten any of those actions because you refused to hand over your credentials.⁴

The protection covers personal social media accounts, email, and other online services. It does not stop employers from monitoring activity on company-owned devices or accounts, and it does not stop them from viewing anything you post publicly.

Advertising and Endorsements on Social Media

Louisiana does not have a standalone social media advertising statute. Instead, advertising on social media is governed by federal FTC rules layered with Louisiana’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (RS 51:1401 et seq.).

The FTC requires anyone with a financial relationship to a brand to disclose that connection when endorsing or promoting products. Disclosures have to be clear and hard to miss, not buried in hashtags or tucked at the end of a long caption.⁵ These rules apply wherever you post, as long as U.S. consumers are likely to see it.

Louisiana’s consumer protection statute sits on top of that. Under RS 51:1406, conduct that complies with Section 5(a)(1) of the FTC Act is exempt from state unfair trade practices claims.⁶ FTC standards are the floor: follow them and you’re covered under state law too. Fall short of them and you face both FTC exposure and a Louisiana claim.

The state claim carries real weight. If a court finds that a business knowingly used deceptive practices after being put on notice by the Attorney General, it can award the injured party three times their actual damages plus reasonable attorney fees and costs.⁷

Data Breach Notification

Any business or agency that owns, licenses, or maintains computerized data containing Louisiana residents’ personal information must notify affected residents if that data is compromised in a security breach. Under RS 51:3074, notification has to happen as quickly as possible and no later than 60 days after the breach is discovered.⁸

A business that maintains data on behalf of another company also has to notify the data owner or licensee. When notification is delayed for law enforcement reasons or to determine the scope of the breach, the business must explain the delay to the Attorney General in writing within the 60-day window.⁸ Social media platforms that collect Louisiana residents’ data are subject to this requirement, on top of any obligations under the Consumer Privacy Act.

1
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 14 RS 14-40.7 – Cyberbullying
2
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 14-40.7 – Cyberbullying
3
StopBullying.gov. Louisiana Anti-Bullying Laws and Policies
4
Louisiana Legislative Auditor. Personal Online Account Privacy Protection Act
5
Federal Trade Commission. Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers
6
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 51-1406 – Exemptions
7
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 51-1409
8
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 51-3074