A lawsuit has been filed against Senate Bill 351, legislation that passed in the 2023-2024 legislative session that raises privacy concerns for social media users in Georgia. The bill requires age verification for all users in order to access social media applications, and it prevents people under the age of 16 from creating social media accounts without parental consent.
The ACLU of Georgia opposes this bill because age verification methods require social media users to upload sensitive information, exposing them to data breaches and other data privacy infringements. Georgians need privacy legislation that, at a minimum, contains strong restrictions on the amount of personal information that can be collected and the ways in which it can be used, not legislation increasing the amount of personal information that private companies can access.
The ACLU of Georgia’s First Amendment Policy Advocate testified against SB 351 at the state legislature in 2024, citing similar First Amendment and privacy concerns that were raised in the recently filed litigation. The ACLU of Georgia has also repeatedly provided the state legislature with language for a bill protecting Georgians’ data privacy. Instead, the legislature has considered bills that significantly fall short of providing necessary safeguards to truly protect Georgians against data privacy infringements.
SB 351 is yet another deviation from the data security that Georgians need and deserve. In its attempt to protect minors from online harm, SB 351 encourages concerned parents to hand over sensitive data to private companies that have unfettered discretion on how the data is collected and used. In the absence of laws that protect privacy, parents – not the government – should have ultimate control over their children’s online activity.
NetChoice – an industry group representing Facebook, Google, YouTube, X, Amazon, and other digital platforms – filed the lawsuit against SB 351 in U.S. District Court earlier this week. Without judicial intervention, SB 351 will become law in Georgia on July 1, 2025.
More information:
Summary of Senate Bill 351 on the Georgia General Assembly website
Prepared remarks for the Georgia House Education Committee on SB 351 (2024)