Georgia SB 351 (Social Media and Adult Sites)

Georgia, United StatesGA SB 351Updated October 15, 2026

100%became law
Bad for your rightsLaw
  1. Introduced
  2. Passed Senate
  3. Passed House
  4. Became Law

Adult-site age checks in force since July 2025; Eleventh Circuit lifted the social media injunction October 15, 2026

Makes social media platforms verify the age of Georgia account holders to keep under-16s out without a parent's consent, and makes adult sites verify every visitor's age. The social media half is blocked; the adult-site half is in force.

Latest update

Eleventh Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction against the social media section and returned the case to the district court

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The bill

Official bill record

Key facts

Where
Georgia, United States
Bill number
GA SB 351
Status
Law
Threat
High
Last update
October 15, 2026

Topics

Age VerificationDigital IDCensorship

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What it does

Georgia SB 351, the Protecting Georgia's Children on Social Media Act of 2024, requires social media companies to make commercially reasonable efforts to verify account holders' ages and to bar anyone under 16 from holding an account without a parent or guardian's express consent. It also limits advertising to minors to contextual ads. A separate section, O.C.G.A. 39-5-5, makes any site where more than a third of the material is harmful to minors use a reasonable age verification method, such as a digitized ID card or government ID, before letting anyone in. That section took effect July 1, 2025 and has not been challenged.

What’s at stake

Verifying that a user is over or under 16 means verifying everyone, so an age gate on a Georgia teenager becomes an ID gate on every Georgia adult. Judge Amy Totenberg blocked the social media section days before its July 1, 2025 start date. On October 15, 2026, the Eleventh Circuit lifted that block, the day after it upheld Florida's similar law. The adult-site ID requirement has been in force since July 2025.

Our take

Georgia copied the parental-consent template that courts blocked in Ohio, Arkansas and Utah. The Eleventh Circuit has now let it go ahead, without ruling on whether it violates the First Amendment. The South is becoming the place where age-gating social media survives in court.

Timeline

  1. Eleventh Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction against the social media section and returned the case to the district courtLatest

  2. Eleventh Circuit heard the appeal

  3. Took effect. The adult-site age verification section (O.C.G.A. 39-5-5) is in force; the social media section was blocked days earlier

  4. Judge Totenberg enjoined the social media section (Section 3-1) only

  5. Signed by Governor Brian Kemp

The record

Sponsor

Sen. Jason Anavitarte

Legal challenges

NetChoice v. Carr

Judge Totenberg (N.D. Ga.) preliminarily enjoined Section 3-1, the social media provisions, on June 26, 2025. The suit does not challenge the adult-site section. On October 15, 2026, a panel of Judges Newsom, Luck and Tjoflat vacated the injunction and sent the case back to the district court. It held that NetChoice failed to carry its burden on a facial challenge under Moody v. NetChoice and did not show the law is vague or preempted by Section 230. It did not decide whether the law violates the First Amendment. NetChoice says it will keep fighting.