Minnesota is turning up the pressure on the biggest social media companies, as Governor Tim Walz on Tuesday signed a bill that tightens protections for kids online by requiring parental consent for users under 16 and limiting design tricks lawmakers say keep children glued to their screens. The law zeroes in on the largest platforms and hands parents new tools to monitor and rein in their kids' accounts. Supporters say the measure effectively resets default privacy settings for minors and cuts down on targeted advertising aimed at young users.
House File 4138, an amendment to the state's Stop Harms From Addictive Social Media statute, was signed on May 26, 2026, according to KNSI. The outlet reports that the law requires platforms to obtain verifiable parental consent before anyone under 16 can create or maintain an account, and that child accounts will automatically default to the most private settings available.
What the bill requires
The law defines a "child" as someone 15 or younger and applies to covered platforms, meaning services with at least $1 billion in worldwide revenue or 10,000 account holders. Those companies must estimate users' ages and make reasonable efforts to identify minors, as laid out in the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes posting of the bill.
On child accounts, the law bans specified "addictive interface features" including infinite scroll, autoplay video, push notifications and the display of engagement metrics. It also forbids targeted paid commercial advertising directed at child users. Platforms must provide parental controls such as time limits, monitoring options and account termination tools, create a private right of action for parents and children, and face statutory damages for knowing or reckless violations.
Legal consequences and enforcement
The statute treats knowing or reckless violations as deceptive trade practices and gives enforcement authority to the state Attorney General, while families can also request termination of child accounts, according to KNSI. Platforms will have defined timelines to terminate accounts after valid requests and must keep records proving verifiable parental consent. Supporters say the combination of state enforcement and private lawsuits should push companies to comply, and they expect industry groups to dig into the law's technical and constitutional angles.
Implementation and what to watch
Most of the bill's provisions take effect July 1, 2027, giving platforms time to overhaul products and procedures that affect minors. Legal observers note that similar state efforts have already sparked court battles and that the U.S. Supreme Court has closely examined state social media rules, a pattern likely to continue as this law rolls out, SCOTUSblog reports.
For Minnesota parents, the statute promises more control over accounts and clearer paths to take a child off a platform altogether. For the companies, it means new age estimation systems, consent flows and compliance paperwork. How the tech giants respond, and whether lawsuits quickly follow, will determine how soon kids and parents in Minnesota actually see those changes show up on their phones.
