Bill > S1033

This bill, the North Carolina Children's Safe Screens Act, establishes new measures to protect children online by creating an Online Safety Division within the Department of Justice, a Cyberbullying Unit at the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), and the North Carolina Online Child Safety Commission. The Online Safety Division will investigate complaints and enforce compliance with the new Act, educate the public and law enforcement about online safety, and issue safety guidelines, while the Cyberbullying Unit will operate a toll-free number and website for online child safety and cyberbullying. The core of the Act, the North Carolina Children's Safe Screens Act, defines terms like "dark patterns" (deceptive design elements that trick users) and "covered platform" (large online services with significant North Carolina user bases and revenue) and mandates that these platforms implement protections for minors, including parental notification for child accounts, robust parental supervision tools, prohibitions on manipulative design, clear definitions and reporting mechanisms for cyberbullying, and annual "Child Impact Assessments" detailing risks to children. Furthermore, covered platforms must default to the highest privacy settings for users likely to be children, minimize data collection, and offer a "Right to be Forgotten" for minors. The Attorney General will enforce these provisions with potential civil penalties of up to $500,000 per violation, and the Act also appropriates significant funds to the Department of Justice for the Children's Online Safety Fund and to the SBI for the Cyberbullying Unit, with most provisions taking effect on July 1, 2026, and the substantive requirements applying from December 1, 2026.