WASHINGTON – The Computer & Communications Industry Association today released its 2025 State Online Safety Landscape, a new report examining the surge of state legislation and litigation focused on children’s online safety. As Congress continues to debate federal standards, states across the country are advancing their own approaches. The result is an increasingly fragmented and legally uncertain policy environment.
The report highlights a central trend shaping the online safety debate in 2025: protecting children online is a universal goal, but many state proposals raise serious concerns related to free speech, privacy, and workable compliance. Federal courts have repeatedly stepped in to block or limit laws that require age verification or parental consent to access lawful online content. This legal reality reinforces constitutional limits on state authority even as state legislatures continue to advance new mandates.
The report identifies several recurring policy approaches, including:
- Age verification and parental consent requirements
- Age-Appropriate Design Code Proposals
- App store accountability bills
- Device-level content filtering mandates
- Social media warning label requirements.
While framed as efforts to improve online safety, many of these measures would require expanded data collection, increased cybersecurity risks, and impose significant compliance burdens on businesses operating in multiple states.
Several states emerged as key areas of focus in 2025:
- California remained the most active state, with dozens of proposals affecting digital services and continued regulatory attention expected in 2026.
- Florida continued to serve as a major legal battleground, with ongoing litigation over age-based access restrictions that could influence other states’ approaches.
- Louisiana and Texas advanced aggressive new models, including app store age verification requirements.
- Utah, Virginia, Vermont, and Montana continued to test novel frameworks that may shape future state-level debates.
The report also underscores the growing role of litigation in shaping online safety policy. Multiple state laws are currently being challenged in court, with judges frequently emphasizing that child safety objectives must be pursued through constitutional means. The legal uncertainty surrounding these laws has already resulted in significant costs for states and creates ongoing challenges for businesses and consumers alike.
The following statement can be attributed to Megan Stokes, State Policy Director for CCIA:
“Protecting children online is essential. CCIA is committed to helping lawmakers protect children while also respecting free expression, safeguarding privacy, and reflecting how digital services actually operate. Many of the proposals we’re seeing at the state level would require collecting more sensitive data, restrict lawful speech, and create a confusing patchwork of rules for families and businesses. CCIA will continue working with policymakers across the country to promote targeted, constitutional approaches to online safety that protects kids without undermining their First Amendment rights.”
