Current through 2023-2024 Legislative Session Chapter 709
Section 39-6-2 - [Effective 7/1/2025] Age verification of account holders; minors; information relating to available content censorship or moderation features(a) The provider of a social media platform shall make commercially reasonable efforts to verify the age of account holders with a level of certainty appropriate to the risks that arise from the social media platform's information management practices or shall apply the special conditions applied to minors under this chapter to all account holders.(b) The provider of a social media platform shall treat as a minor any individual such provider verifies to be under the age of 16 years.(c) No provider of a social media platform shall permit a minor to be an account holder unless such provider obtains the express consent of such minor's parent or guardian. Acceptable methods of obtaining express consent from a parent or guardian include: (1) Providing a form for the minor's parent or guardian to sign and return to the social media platform by common carrier, facsimile, email, or scanning;(2) Providing a toll-free telephone number for the minor's parent or guardian to call to consent;(3) Coordinating a call with the minor's parent or guardian using videoconferencing technology;(4) Collecting information related to the minor's parent's or guardian's government issued identification or financial or payment card information and deleting such information after confirming the identity of the parent or guardian;(5) Allowing the minor's parent or guardian to provide consent by responding to an email and taking additional steps to verify the parent's or guardian's identity; and(6) Any other commercially reasonable method of obtaining consent using available technology.(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, no provider of a social media platform shall permit a minor to hold or open an account on the social media platform if the minor is ineligible to hold or open an account under any other provision of state or federal law.(e) The provider of a social media platform shall make available, upon the request of a parent or guardian of a minor, a list and description of the features offered by the social media platform related to censoring or moderating content available on the social media platform, including any features that can be disabled or modified by an account holder.Added by 2024 Ga. Laws 463,§ 3-1, eff. 7/1/2025.