Children’s Data & Social Media Privacy Laws

Portions of this blog were also co-authored by Taft Summer Associate Ashley Patriquin.

Businesses that provide a website or online services that collect data from or about minors or children should be aware of expanding legal requirements from U.S. states. These laws impose a range of obligations on businesses, including age estimation requirements, heightened privacy disclosures, limitations on data collection and profiling, and duties to act in the best interests of minors.

State legislatures have also recently begun directly regulating the privacy practices of companies that provide social media solutions to consumers, often with an eye to protecting underage users. Common amongst these new laws are age verification requirements and parental control and consent requirements. Some laws go further, such as requiring ‘deplatforming’ in certain circumstances and restricting ‘shadow banning’ practices. Many of these statutes define “social media” to broadly include any technologies