Minnesota HF 4138 (Addictive Social Media, Age Estimation)

Minnesota, United StatesMN HF 4138 / SF 4696Updated May 26, 2026

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

Signed May 26, 2026; takes effect July 1, 2027

Minnesota's addictive social media law makes platforms estimate account holders' ages from their activity and treat anyone they cannot place at 16 or older as a child.

Latest update

Signed by Gov. Tim Walz (Laws 2026, ch. 111)

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The bill

Official bill record

Key facts

Where
Minnesota, United States
Bill number
MN HF 4138 / SF 4696
Status
Law
Age estimation and child-account rules begin
July 1, 2027
Threat
High
Last update
May 26, 2026

Topics

Age VerificationCensorshipPrivacy

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What it does

Laws 2026, chapter 111 creates Minn. Stat. 325M.40, effective July 1, 2027, for social media platforms with 10,000 or more account holders or $1 billion in worldwide revenue. Platforms must collect birth month and year at sign-up and, within 14 days after an account reaches 25 hours of use in six months, estimate the holder's age; they may treat a user as 16 or older only with 80% confidence, rising to 90% after 50 hours, and must redo the estimate every six months. Users 15 and under need verifiable parental consent and get child accounts with no addictive features, such as profile-based feeds, push notifications and autoplay, and no targeted ads. Children and parents can sue for actual damages or $10,000 in statutory damages for reckless or knowing violations, and the Attorney General can pursue them as deceptive trade practices.

What’s at stake

The 10,000-account threshold pulls in small forums and community sites alongside the giants. A platform that cannot reach the confidence score must default the user to a child account, so adults with thin activity histories can lose features the law reserves for people it is sure are older.

Our take

Minnesota says the law creates no duty to collect new data, then demands 90% confidence about a user's age, which platforms can only reach by mining the data they already hold. Behavioral profiling of adults becomes a compliance requirement.

Timeline

  1. Law takes effectUpcoming

  2. Signed by Gov. Tim Walz (Laws 2026, ch. 111)Latest

  3. House repassed it as amended 131-2

  4. Senate substituted HF 4138 for SF 4696 and passed it 66-0

  5. House passed it 132-2

The record

Sponsors

Rep. Peggy Scott, Sen. Erin Maye Quade

Votes

  • House: Passed (132 to 2), May 12, 2026
  • Senate: Passed (66 to 0), May 15, 2026
  • House: Repassed as amended (131 to 2), May 16, 2026