Bill Tracker
Every bill we’re watching that threatens privacy, free speech, or online anonymity, across the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Australia. Filter by position, country, topic, and where each one stands.
New York S8102 (Device Age Checks)
Would push age verification down to the device, operating system, and app store, so a phone checks your age before its software works normally.
UK National Security (State Threats) Bill
Ministers can designate organizations as tools of foreign states and prosecute support for them. Rammed through the whole Parliament in 29 days.
Ohio Parental Notification Act
Struck down in 2025, revived on appeal in June. Ohio's under-16 parental consent law is back in force.
Massachusetts Social Media Bill (S2581)
Would bar under-14s from social media in Massachusetts and check the age of everyone to enforce it. The House and Senate passed rival versions and now have to reconcile them.
EU Chat Control 1.0 (Scanning Derogation)
The 'temporary' law behind mass scanning of Europe's messages since 2021. A majority of voting MEPs tried to block its July revival and fell short of the absolute majority needed to do it, so suspicionless scanning is law again through April 2028.
Texas App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420)
Makes Apple and Google age-check every Texan who opens an app store account. In force after the Supreme Court declined to block it.
Nebraska Age-Appropriate Online Design Code (LB 504)
Nebraska's kids code took effect in January, and the attorney general's power to sue over it switched on July 1.
Idaho HB 542 (Addictive Social Media)
Makes billion-dollar social media platforms estimate the age of Idaho users after heavy use, then treat anyone who reads as 16 or under as a child needing parental consent.
EU CSA Regulation (Chat Control 2.0)
The permanent plan to mandate scanning of private messages in Europe. Five trilogue rounds have failed on the same question: suspicionless scanning of encrypted communications.
Nebraska Parental Rights in Social Media Act (LB 383)
Nebraska's social media age-check law was blocked days before taking effect. The part that survived forces platforms to hand parents their kids' private messages.
Canada Bill C-22 (Lawful Access Act)
Canada's surveillance rebuild: providers ordered to install monitoring capability, encryption breakable on ministerial demand, and a year of everyone's metadata on file. Passed the Commons; the Senate is what remains.
Canada Combatting Hate Act (C-9)
The speech-offense half of the dead Online Harms Act, passed on its own: a hate-crime offense with maximums up to life imprisonment, pre-crime peace bonds, and buffer offenses around places of worship and schools. In force since July 18.
NO FAKES Act
Creates a federal property right in your face and voice, with a notice-and-takedown system that lets any rights holder pull online content fast.
UK NHS Modernisation Bill
Compels every NHS provider into a single lifetime health record per person, surfaced through the NHS App, the same app ecosystem the digital ID scheme wants to inhabit.
JAWBONE Act
The Cruz-Wyden bill that lets Americans sue the government for pressuring platforms to censor them, whether or not the censorship worked, with the pressure itself logged in public.
Canada Bill C-34 (Safe Social Media Act)
Canada's under-16 social media ban plus a new Digital Safety Commission, with the operative details left to regulations. Keeping minors out means age ID checks on every adult.
Louisiana App Store Accountability Act (HB 570)
Louisiana's app store age-check law passed without a single no vote. Its start date has slipped to July 2027.
California SB 976 (Addictive Feeds)
Bans personalized feeds for minors without parental consent, which means platforms have to work out who is a minor.
UK Representation of the People Bill
The elections bill drawing proposals for election speech controls: broadcast-style restrictions on social media, polling-day reporting bans, and platforms told to prioritize approved media.
Texas SCOPE Act (HB 18)
Requires parental consent and content controls for under-18s on digital services, partly blocked by the courts. Separate from the Texas porn-site law.
UK Crime and Policing Act 2026
Turns 50 million driving licence photos into the largest real-name facial recognition database British police have ever had, usable against faces captured live at protests.
Canada Bill S-209 (Age Verification)
Canada's age-verification bill on its third attempt: a criminal offense to serve adult content without age ID checks, with website blocking as the enforcement tool.
UK Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
The schools bill that became the vehicle for VPN bans and device scanning. Those fell out; the power for ministers to impose online restrictions by regulation survived.
Arkansas Acts 900/901 (Social Media, 2025)
Arkansas lost on its first age-verification law, rewrote it as two new ones, and got both blocked again. Now the Eighth Circuit decides.
Wisconsin AB 105 / SB 130 (Age Verification)
Wisconsin's age-verification bill tried to make adult sites block VPN users. The VPN ban was stripped after backlash, then the whole bill died with the session.
Utah App Store Accountability Act
The first state law making app stores verify the age of everyone, and the template the federal bill and other states copied.
California Age-Appropriate Design Code
California's design-code law makes platforms estimate users' ages and reshape their products for minors. Courts have partly blocked it.
Georgia SB 351 (Social Media)
Bars under-16s from social media without a parent's consent and requires age verification, blocked by a federal court the month before it was to start.
Australia Online Safety Act 2021
The law behind the eSafety Commissioner: takedown powers over global platforms, and industry codes now switching on age checks at search engines, app stores, and the devices themselves.
Virginia SB 854 (Social Media)
Makes social media platforms screen every Virginia user's age and holds under-16s to one hour a day, now blocked by a federal court.
Alabama App Store Accountability Act (HB 161)
Alabama's app store law goes further than the others: every existing account must be age-verified, not just new ones.
South Carolina Age-Appropriate Design Code (H.3431)
The fifth state kids code, and the harshest: effective the day it was signed, treble damages, and personal liability for employees.
Tennessee HB 1891 (Social Media)
Makes social media platforms verify the age of every account holder in Tennessee and get a parent's consent before anyone under 18 can sign up.
Mississippi HB 1126 (Social Media)
Requires age verification and parental consent to use social media, now in force after the Supreme Court declined to block it.
Louisiana Act 456 (Social Media Age Checks)
Louisiana's social media age-check law, permanently struck down in December 2025. The state is appealing.
Australia Social Media Minimum Age Act
The world's first under-16 social media ban, in force: ten platforms must keep minors out or face fines near A$50 million, and parental consent is no defense.
UK Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
The law that built Britain's digital ID rails while everyone watched the data-reform headline: a state-run trust framework and register for identity providers, live since December.
Missouri AG Rule 15 CSR 60-18
Missouri's adult-content age check written not as a statute but as an Attorney General rule, and drawn wide enough to name social media.
Florida HB 3 (Social Media)
Bars under-14s from social media and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, enforced now while the courts fight over it.
Maryland Kids Code (HB 603)
Maryland's copy of California's design code has been in force since 2024 while NetChoice tries to kill it in court.
Colorado HB24-1136 (Social Media Warnings)
Ordered social media platforms to push state-scripted warning pop-ups at under-18 users, struck down by a federal court as compelled speech.
California Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043)
Puts the age check inside the operating system: every device set up in California reports an age bracket to every app.
Ohio HB 96 (Adult Content)
Ohio's adult-site age check, tucked into the state budget bill after a standalone version stalled.
Arizona HB 2112 (Adult Content)
Arizona's 2025 adult-site age check, with damages that climb to $250,000 if a minor gets through.
New York SAFE for Kids Act
New York's ban on addictive feeds for minors. The attorney general's rules will decide how every New Yorker proves their age.
Michigan HB 4938 (ISP Filtering and VPN Ban)
Would force ISPs to filter the internet statewide and block VPNs, proxies, and encrypted tunnels. Parked in committee, but it is the blueprint.
North Dakota HB 1561 (Adult Content)
North Dakota's 2025 adult-site age check, passed without a single no vote in either chamber.
UK Online Safety Act
The broadest attack on free speech and privacy any Western democracy has passed: age checks to use the internet, a state regulator over online speech, criminal penalties for posts, and a standby power to scan private messages.
GENIUS Act
Now law, it regulates dollar stablecoins as the private alternative to a CBDC, but does little for financial privacy.
Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act
A protective bill that would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency.
Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act
Would make platforms report suspected drug activity in users' messages to the DEA, deputizing them as federal informants.
Wyoming HB 43 (Adult Content)
Wyoming's 2025 adult-site age check, with a flat $5,000 in statutory damages for each failed verification.
South Dakota HB 1053 (Adult Content)
South Dakota's 2025 adult-site age check, enforced with criminal charges that escalate to a felony for repeat offenders.
Texas HB 1181 (Age Verification)
Requires age verification to view adult content, the law the Supreme Court used to greenlight online ID checks.
Indiana SB 17 (Adult Content)
Indiana's adult-site age check, blocked as unconstitutional in 2024 before the Supreme Court's Texas ruling knocked the ground out from under that block.
Vermont Age-Appropriate Design Code (S.69)
Vermont's kids code, signed June 2025, takes effect January 2027 with the attorney general writing the rules now.
STOP CSAM Act
Would let platforms be sued for 'recklessly' hosting abuse material, which makes offering encryption itself the legal risk.
TAKE IT DOWN Act
The deepfake takedown law with a 48-hour clock, no encryption exception, and the FTC now sending warning letters.
Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)
Would make platforms police content for minors, which in practice pushes them to age-verify every user.
App Store Accountability Act
Would make Apple and Google verify the age of everyone using their app stores, including adults, and confirm a parent's identity.
ENCRYPT Act
A protective bill that would stop individual states from ordering companies to weaken or backdoor encryption.
Arkansas Social Media Safety Act (SB 396)
Arkansas's social media age-verification law, struck down in full as unconstitutional. The state came back with a rewrite.
SCREEN Act
Would require age verification to view adult content, and explicitly targets VPNs so people can't bypass it.
Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA)
Would ban under-13s from social media and require platforms to know users' ages to enforce it.
Canada Bill C-63 (Online Harms Act)
The bill that would have created a Digital Safety Commission, life sentences for speech offenses, and pre-crime peace bonds for things not yet said. It died with Trudeau's prorogation, and its halves came back separately.
EARN IT Act
Strips platforms of liability protection in a way that pressures them to break end-to-end encryption.
Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
A protective bill that would stop the government buying Americans' data from brokers to sidestep a warrant. Passed the House in 2024, died in the Senate.
Tennessee SB 1792 (Adult Content)
Tennessee's adult-site age check, the rare one that makes a failed verification a felony.
Australia Digital ID Act 2024
Australia's national digital ID framework, in force and expanding: government services first, private-sector accreditation opening November 30, 2026.
Australia Misinformation Bill (Withdrawn)
Would have made a government regulator the referee of truth online, with platforms fined over 'misinformation' while government and professional media content was exempt. Withdrawn when the Senate votes were not there.
Oklahoma SB 1959 (Adult Content)
Oklahoma's adult-site age check, another 2024 private-lawsuit law that the Supreme Court's 2025 Texas ruling left standing.
Connecticut SB 3 (Online Privacy & Minors)
Adds child-safety and health-data rules to Connecticut's privacy law, with a vague harm-to-minors duty and account-deletion mandates the Attorney General enforces.
Alabama HB 164 (Adult Content)
Alabama's adult-site age check, backed by both a $10,000 state penalty and private lawsuits, with a ban on keeping the ID.
Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act (SB 194)
Utah's social media age-check law, the one that started the state wave, blocked in court since 2024.
Nebraska LB 1092 (Adult Content)
Nebraska's adult-site age check, passed by the state's one-house legislature and enforced through private lawsuits.
Kentucky HB 278 (Adult Content)
Kentucky's adult-site age check, with a $10,000 penalty for each failed verification and $1,000 a day for keeping a user's ID.
Idaho HB 498 (Adult Content)
Idaho's 2024 adult-site age check, with statutory damages baked in so a plaintiff need not prove a dollar of harm.
Kansas SB 394 (Adult Content)
Kansas's adult-site age check, notable for a lower 25 percent content trigger and both state fines and private lawsuits.
South Carolina H 3424 (Child Online Safety Act)
South Carolina's adult-site age check, the Child Online Safety Act, which took effect the moment the governor signed it.
EU Digital Identity Regulation
Requires every EU member state to offer a digital identity wallet, with rollout due by the end of 2026.
UK Investigatory Powers Act 2016
The Snoopers' Charter: bulk interception, state hacking, a year of everyone's browsing history on file, and secret orders that can compel companies to break their own encryption.
EU Digital Services Act
The EU's speech-control framework: state-certified 'trusted flaggers' whose reports platforms must prioritize, systemic-risk duties over lawful content, and a crisis switch, backed by fines of 6 percent of global revenue.
Montana SB 544 (Adult Content)
Montana's adult-site age check, carried by a Democrat and later stripped of its state enforcement, leaving only private lawsuits.
North Carolina HB 8 (PAVE Act)
North Carolina's adult-site age check, the PAVE Act, slipped into a larger bill and enforced through two kinds of private lawsuit.
Arkansas SB 66 (Adult Content)
Arkansas's 2023 adult-content age check, Act 612, enforced entirely by private lawsuits.
Mississippi SB 2346 (Adult Content)
Mississippi's 2023 adult-content age check, the porn-site law that came a year before the state's social media mandate.
Virginia SB 1515 (Adult Content)
Virginia's 2023 adult-site age check, built as pure civil liability with no regulator and no criminal charge.
Utah SB 287 (Adult Content)
One of the first state laws to make adult sites verify a visitor is 18, enforced by private lawsuits rather than a state agency.
Canada Online Streaming Act (C-11)
Put the CRTC, Canada's broadcast regulator, over online streaming and audio platforms, with user-generated content pulled in through an exception to the exception.
Louisiana HB 142 (Age Verification)
The first age-verification law for adult content, the 2022 Louisiana bill that every other state copied.
EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation
Any EU member state's authority can order any platform to remove 'terrorist content' within one hour, no court involved, cross-border, with proactive measures for repeat targets.
Australia TOLA (Assistance and Access Act)
The first Western law built to compel tech companies to help break their own encryption: secret notices, criminal penalties for disclosure, and a 'systemic weakness' safeguard nobody can define.