North Carolina SB 1033: NC Children's Safe Screens Act/Funds.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
S 1
SENATE BILL 1033

Short Title: NC Children's Safe Screens Act/Funds. (Public)
Sponsors: Senators Garrett, Salvador, and Batch (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to: Rules and Operations of the Senate
May 4, 2026
*S1033-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT ENACTING THE NORTH CAROLINA CHILDREN'S SAFE SCREENS ACT TO 2
PROTECT CHILDREN ONLINE, ESTABLISHING THE ONLINE SAFETY DIVISION 3
AT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND THE CYBERBULLYING UNIT AT THE 4
STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, CREATING THE NORTH CAROLINA 5
ONLINE CHILD SAFETY COMMISSION, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS FOR 6
THOSE PURPOSES. 7
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 8
9
ESTABLISH ONLINE SAFETY DIVISION UNDER THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 10
SECTION 1. Online Safety Division. – Effective July 1, 2026, Chapter 114 of the 11
General Statutes is amended by adding a new Article to read: 12
"Article 11. 13
"Online Safety Division. 14
"§ 114-75. Division established; duties; funding. 15
(a) There is hereby established in the Office of the Attorney General of North Carolina, 16
the Online Safety Division (Division). The Division includes the North Carolina Online Child 17
Safety Commission (Commission) created in Chapter 114B of the General Statutes. 18
(b) The attorneys and professional staff assigned to this Division shall focus on online 19
safety, with an emphasis on the protection of children online. The Division shall have the 20
following duties: 21
(1) Investigation of complaints made under, and enforcing compliance, with the 22
Chapter 114B of the General Statute (Children's Safe Screens Act). 23
(2) Educating law enforcement agencies and the general public about the online 24
safety of all North Carolinians, with an emphasis targeting harmful activities 25
and dark patterns. 26
(3) Issuance of online safety standards and guidelines, and review of relevant 27
industry codes pertaining to internet safety, age-appropriate design, and 28
compliance with the Children's Safe Screens Act. 29
(4) Facilitating advisory panels on internet safety, including child development 30
experts, technology specialists, parent representatives, community 31
stakeholders, and industry representatives. 32
(c) There is established in the Department of Justice a special fund to be known as the 33
Children's Online Safety Fund (Fund). The Fund shall be administered by the Commission and 34
used exclusively for prevention, education, and enforcement activities under Chapter 114B of 35
the General Statutes. The Fund shall receive appropriations by the General Assembly and any 36

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 Senate Bill 1033-First Edition
gifts, grants, or donations accepted for that purpose. The Commission shall report annually to the 1
General Assembly on Fund expenditures and outcomes." 2
3
ENACT NORTH CAROLINA CHILDREN'S SAFE SCREENS ACT/CREATE ONLINE 4
SAFETY COMMISSION 5
SECTION 2.(a) Children's Online Safety. – Effective July 1, 2026, the General 6
Statutes are amended to add a new Chapter to read: 7
"Chapter 114B. 8
"North Carolina Children's Safe Screens Act. 9
"§ 114B-1. Definitions. 10
The following definitions apply in this Article: 11
(1) Age-appropriate design. – Design focused on developmental needs of 12
children. 13
(2) Child or minor. – An individual under eighteen (18) years of age. 14
(3) Covered platform. – An internet platform providing online services having 15
more than five million (5,000,000) users in North Carolina and revenues 16
exceeding twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) annually. 17
(4) Dark patterns. – Design elements that deceive or coerce users into unintended 18
actions, including hidden defaults, misleading interfaces, artificial urgency, 19
autoplay of content, infinite scroll features, notification manipulation, and 20
obstruction of account deletion or privacy controls. 21
(5) Division. – The Online Safety Division of the North Carolina Department of 22
Justice. 23
(6) Harmful content. – Content that includes cyberbullying, self-harm promotion, 24
sexually explicit material, violent content, discrimination, and other physical 25
or psychological harms. 26
(7) Online service. – Social media, gaming platforms, messaging services, 27
content-sharing platforms, and other user-interactive services provided by a 28
covered platform. 29
"§ 114B-2. Duty of care established; mandated protections for children; requirements for 30
covered platforms. 31
(a) It is the public policy of this State that its children are owed a duty of care with regard 32
to their online activities in order to limit foreseeable harm and their exposure to dark patterns and 33
harmful content on covered platforms. Further, the General Assembly endorses age-appropriate 34
design and strong parental controls as central to protecting children in online service 35
environments. 36
(b) Covered platforms shall require parental notification for accounts created by children 37
and must offer robust, easy-to