Senate panel to discuss bill regulating youth social media and school AI use
RALEIGH — A North Carolina Senate committee is scheduled to discuss a bill Tuesday that would regulate social media access for minors while requiring public schools to adopt policies and training around artificial intelligence.
House Bill 301, titled “Social Media & AI Safety,” is listed for discussion only in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, June 2. The bill passed the House in May 2025 by a vote of 106-6 and was later re-referred to Senate Judiciary after a proposed Senate committee substitute was reported favorably in April.
The proposed Senate committee substitute would prohibit social media platforms from allowing children younger than 14 to become account holders. It would also require parental or guardian consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to create or maintain accounts.
Under the bill, covered social media platforms would be required to use age verification to confirm whether an account holder is 16 or older. The bill says platforms must offer both anonymous age verification and standard age verification, with users allowed to select which method is used.
The Department of Justice would be the enforcing agency. Knowing or reckless violations could be treated as unfair or deceptive trade practices, with civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation. The bill also allows certain claims on behalf of minor account holders, with damages of up to $10,000.
The proposal would not apply to all online services. The bill’s definition of social media platform excludes services used exclusively for email or direct messaging, websites primarily offering provider-selected news, sports, entertainment or other information, customer-service forums, interactive video games with parental controls, online shopping and e-commerce.
A separate section of the bill would require the State Board of Education to add artificial intelligence literacy to the K-12 computer science standard course of study. The standards would include instruction on responsible and ethical use of AI, limitations of AI tools, verification of AI outputs, data privacy and safety when interacting with AI or chatbots. Those standards would be adopted for implementation beginning with the 2028-29 school year.
The bill would also require the Department of Public Instruction to develop a model AI policy for public school units by Dec. 31, 2026. Local boards of education, charter schools, regional schools and laboratory schools would have to adopt policies on educational AI use by June 30, 2027.
DPI would also be required to establish and maintain an evaluation framework for generative AI-powered educational tools. The framework would address student data privacy, security, transparency, alignment with the standard course of study and accessibility. DPI would also maintain public lists of reviewed AI tools and AI tools being used in public school units.
The bill would require DPI to partner with N.C. State University’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation to create training modules for educators and administrators. Teachers in local school administrative units, charter schools and laboratory schools would be required to complete the training by June 30, 2028.
Editor’s note: This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
