HB276 Alabama 2025 Session

Updated Feb 22, 2026

High Interest

Summary

Primary Sponsor: Ben RobbinsRepresentative
Republican
Session: 2025 Regular Session
Title: Consumer protection, requires social media platforms terminate certain accounts, display notifications, prohibit certain actions, use age verification, provide certain tools, remove certain content, penalties provided for violations
Summary: HB276 would regulate social media platforms to protect minors by requiring notifications, age verification, parental controls, content restrictions, and penalties for violations, with guidance provided by the Department of Education and enforcement by the Attorney General.
What This Bill Does
It requires platforms to notify when users under 18 use the platform in certain circumstances, prohibit certain actions by minor accounts, and respond promptly to Attorney General inquiries. It also mandates a commercially reasonable age verification process, provides parents with tools and settings to manage minors’ accounts, and requires removal of certain content under specific conditions. It creates penalties for violations, categorizes knowing or reckless violations as deceptive trade practices, and directs the Department of Education to develop guidelines and a resource bank on minors’ health impacts from social media. The act becomes effective January 1, 2027 and includes enforcement mechanisms and reporting requirements for compliance.

Who It Affects
Minors under 18: subject to notifications, restrictions on direct messaging from adults, data-use and advertising limits, and enhanced safety controls.
Parents/guardians: granted tools and settings to supervise and manage their minor’s account, including termination rights and time/privacy controls.
Social media platforms: must implement notifications, age verification, parental tools, content restrictions, and cooperate with the Attorney General; face penalties for violations.
Alabama Attorney General and law enforcement: authorized to request information, pursue enforcement, and impose penalties for violations.
State Department of Education: responsible for developing guidelines and maintaining a resource bank on minors’ health impacts from social media, with annual updates.

Key Provisions
Section 2: Termination rights – allows account holder to terminate an account within five business days; allows confirmed parent/guardian of a minor under 16 to request termination within 45 business days; requires permanent deletion of the minor's data upon termination unless required by law.
Section 3: Default notifications – starting January 1, 2027, platforms must display a pop-up or full-screen notification to minors when they have spent one cumulative hour on the platform in 24 hours or when using it between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
Section 4: Prohibitions – minor-owned accounts cannot receive direct messages from adults 18+ unless already connected; platforms cannot collect or use excessive personal information; no personalized ads based on personal information (except age or location).
Section 5: AG inquiries – platforms must respond timely in usable format to AG regarding policies, changes, content categories, moderation practices, and law-enforcement data requests; AG may publicly report collected information and cannot disclose trade secrets when disclosure could harm security.
Section 6: Age verification – platforms must use a commercially reasonable age verification process; allow users to apply protective settings; data collected for verification must be retained only for compliance and securely disposed after verification; US-based agents required.
Section 7: Parental tools – platforms must provide easy-to-use tools for parents/guardians to manage privacy, restrict purchases, view time metrics, set usage limits, and opt out of features like infinite scrolling, notifications, rewards, appearance-altering filters, auto-play, and geolocation; also restrict or customize recommendations and view minor interactions with other accounts.
Section 8: Additional safeguards – default settings must be the most protective for minors; allow limits on time, messaging, data sharing, and geolocation; provide warnings about geolocation, data tracking, and targeted advertising; allow deletion of minor accounts and data.
Section 9: Content enforcement – platforms must take action against users who violate published policies as detected by content moderation systems.
Section 10: Notice and cure – AG must issue a notice of violation before enforcement; platform has 60 days to cure the violation; if not cured, legal action may be brought.
Section 11: Penalties – violations are treated as deceptive trade practices; AG may sue for civil penalties up to $50,000 per violation and may seek punitive damages for patterns; attorney’s fees and court costs may be awarded.
Section 12: DOE guidelines and resource bank – DOE may develop curriculum guidelines; convene a stakeholder group to identify evidence-based resources; maintain and annually update a resource bank on minors’ health impacts from social media.
Section 13: AG rulemaking – AG to adopt rules to implement the act.
Section 14: Safe harbor – ISPs, search engines, and cloud providers are not considered to violate the act solely for providing access or connections to third-party content.
Section 15: Effective date – the act becomes effective January 1, 2027.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 22, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.
Subjects: Consumer Protection