New Jersey Enacts Children's Online Safety Law
The new package includes an age-appropriate design code, creating new compliance obligations for online services likely to be accessed by minors.
New Jersey has enacted a legislative package aimed at protecting children online, featuring an age-appropriate design code that will impose new requirements on online services and products likely to be accessed by minors. The development continues a significant trend of US states creating their own distinct rules for online child safety, following the model of California's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act and similar regulations abroad. The growing number of state-specific laws creates an increasingly complex and costly compliance patchwork for national and global technology companies. This moves regulatory concerns beyond traditional data privacy into the architecture and function of platforms serving young users. General counsel and compliance officers at companies with any significant online presence must now track another state-specific regime. Counsel should analyze the New Jersey law's specific provisions to determine its scope and applicability, assess whether their platforms fall under its definitions, and prepare for design and policy changes before the law’s effective date.