Massachusetts Under-14 Social Media Ban (H.5366)

Massachusetts, United StatesMA H.5366 (194th)Updated April 8, 2026

50%of the way to law
Bad for your rightsIn progress
  1. Introduced
  2. Passed House
  3. Passed Senate
  4. Became Law

Passed the House 129-25 (April 8, 2026); in conference committee with the Senate version

The House version would make social media platforms run an age check system on every Massachusetts user so they can bar under-14s and require parental consent at 14 and 15, and it bans phones in schools from bell to bell.

Latest update

Passed the House 129-25

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The bill

Read the full billOfficial bill record

Key facts

Where
Massachusetts, United States
Bill number
MA H.5366 (194th)
Status
In progress
Threat
High
Last update
April 8, 2026

Topics

Age VerificationDigital IDCensorship

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What it does

The Bill has two halves. Schools must prohibit personal devices for the whole school day, using either secure storage or technology that makes a phone inoperable, and must also teach students about the harms of social media. The online half creates a new Online Protection chapter. Anyone under 14 is barred from holding a social media account, and platforms must terminate the accounts that already exist and delete the personal information behind them. A 14 or 15 year old needs verified parental consent to hold one at all. Those accounts then default to connected-accounts-only visibility and messaging, with no algorithmic feed and no notifications overnight. Platforms must run an age ID check system using the best available technology and offer a three-day appeal against its verdict. Data gathered for that purpose must be kept segregated and confidential, and platforms must publish how many users they verified and how many they turned away. Data about a minor's LGBTQ status cannot be shared. Fines reach 5,000 dollars for each non-compliant account. The online chapter would take effect on October 1, 2026, with attorney general rules due a month earlier.

What’s at stake

Massachusetts is running two very different answers at once. The Senate bill leaves everyone on the platform and turns off the addictive parts, bars identification-only age checks, and allows a user to decline the check. This House version removes children from the platform altogether and requires age checks with none of those limits, so verification becomes the load-bearing part rather than an afterthought. Whichever survives decides whether the state ends up regulating design or policing entry, and a conference committee is now negotiating between the two.

Our take

Removing every under-14 account means checking the age of every account, which is the whole population, not the children. The House wants platforms to use the best technology available, which is an instruction to guess harder rather than a limit on what they may demand. Comparing the two chambers is useful for once, because the Senate showed that the same worry can be answered without carding the entire state.

Timeline

  1. Passed the House 129-25Latest

The record

Votes

  • House: Passed (129 to 25), April 8, 2026