What originally started as screen-time debates in living rooms has become a worldwide legal crackdown on children’s social media use. In December 2025, Australia became the first country to ban users under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and X.[1] Eighteen U.S. states have also enacted or proposed legislation similar to Australia’s that either requires minors of certain ages to obtain parental permission before opening an account or bans minors from creating a social media account altogether.[2] One of these eighteen states is North Carolina, with HB 301.[3]
North Carolina’s proposed law, HB 301, called “Social Media Protections For Minors Under 16,” is the state’s attempt at a social media ban similar to Australia’s.[4] The proposed bill prohibits minors under 14 from creating social media accounts and prevents 14- to 15-year-olds from creating social media accounts without a parent or guardian’s consent.[5]In addition to prohibiting minors under the age of 14 from creating a social media account on their platform, the proposed bill also states that social media platforms shall terminate any account held by a minor under 14 years old and any account held by minors between the ages of 14 and 15 years old, unless the minor obtains parent or guardian consent.[6] The proposed bill further requires social media companies to “permanently delete all personal information held by the social media platform related to the terminated account, unless there are legal requirements to maintain the information.”[7]Under the proposed law, social media platforms would also have to allow the parent or guardian of a minor aged 14 or 15 to request that the minor’s account be deleted.[8]
The proposed HB would also impose significant penalties on social media platforms that fail to comply in North Carolina. The proposed law states that, in addition to other remedies, a “civil penalty of up to fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) per violation” may be imposed, and social media platforms that knowingly or recklessly violate the proposed law are liable to the minor account holders, who may be awarded up to $10,000 in damages.[9]
This proposed North Carolina bill comes at a time when many parents and guardians are beginning to become very concerned about the addictive nature of social media and its impact on teens. Many of the teen social media bans, including the one in Australia, are being put in place to protect the mental health and well-being of children and teens because the risks outweigh the benefits.[10] The U.S. government has also recognized that social media may have detrimental effects on American children and teens. In 2023, the U.S. government released a Surgeon General’s Advisory that calls attention to the growing concerns about the effects of social media on the mental health of children and teens.[11] “A Surgeon General’s Advisory is a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed.”[12] According to the advisory, social media use by youth is nearly universal, “up to 95% of youth ages 13-17 report using a social media platform, with more than a third saying they use social media ‘almost constantly.’”[13] Part of the problem is that social media is such a new development, and researchers are not yet fully aware of the impact of social media on young people and their mental health. Federal public health officials caution that there is not yet enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe; however, there are ample indicators that social media can have a “profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adults”.[14] The advisory further states that urgent action is necessary to create healthy and safe digital environments that “minimize harm and safeguard children’s and adolescents’ mental health and well-being during critical stages of development.”[15]
North Carolina’s HB 301 has clearly kept protecting the mental health of minors at the forefront of the bill. One way that the law categorizes a platform as a covered “social media platform” is if it has certain addictive features, including infinite scrolling, push notifications, the number of likes or reposts, auto-play video, and live streaming.[16] HB 301 also provides that the law shall be “liberally construed for the protection of minors.”[17] By allowing the bill to cover many of the mechanisms that make social media addictive, North Carolina HB 301 hopes to combat the negative mental health impacts that being on social media likely leads to.
While HB 301 is not yet an active law, it may become law soon. The proposed law was passed in the North Carolina House in a 106-6 vote on May 6th, 2025.[18] The bill has not yet been placed on the Senate’s calendar, but people, including Representative Jeff Zenger of Forsyth, who introduced the bill, feel “very confident” that it will pass.[19] If passed, HB 301 will significantly affect how North Carolinians under the age of 16 interact with the internet.
[1] Dylan Butts, Australia Is Trying to Enforce the First Teen Social Media Ban. Governments Worldwide Are Watching., CNBC (Dec. 10, 2025), https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/10/australia-16-year-old-teens-ban-social-media-policy-law-ig-tiktok-fb-reddit-youtube-snapchat.html.
[2] Sandy Dornsife, Eight States Enact Minor Social Media Bans Despite Court Fights, MultiState (Oct. 8, 2025), https://www.multistate.us/insider/2025/10/8/eight-states-enact-minor-social-media-bans-despite-court-fights.
[3] H.B. 301, 2025 Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (N.C. 2025), https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2025/Bills/House/PDF/H301v3.pdf.
[4] Id.
[5] James O’Hara, North Carolina Bill Seeks to Limit Social Media Access for Minors, The Daily Tar Heel (Jan. 21, 2025), https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/city-minors-social-media-laws-20260121.
[6] H.B. 301, 2025 Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (N.C. 2025), https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2025/Bills/House/PDF/H301v3.pdf
[7] Id. at § 114B-2(a)(2).
[8] Id. at § 114B-2(b)(2).
[9] Id. at § 114B-2(c).
[10] Social Media Ban, UNICEF Australia, https://www.unicef.org.au/unicef-youth/staying-safe-online/social-media-ban-explainer?srsltid=AfmBOooVpFro0QYPshThhd6DzKRl960qb8a4XaLwhvV738LfO_gEd9nx (last visited Jan. 27, 2025).
[11] Office of the Surgeon General, Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory (2023), https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf.
[12] Id. at 3.
[13] Id. at 4.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] H.B. 301, 2025 Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (N.C. 2025), https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2025/Bills/House/PDF/H301v3.pdf
[17] Id. at § 114B-4(a).
[18] O’Hara, supra note 5.
[19] Id.
