New Jersey has officially moved from proposal to law. A sweeping new online-safety package signed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill will restrict when social media platforms can send notifications to minors, limit how algorithms use children’s personal data to recommend content, strengthen default privacy settings and give families new ways to hold companies accountable.
NEW JERSEY — Earlier this summer, the debate was about what New Jersey might do to protect children online.
Now the state has acted.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a package of three bills on August 11 aimed at protecting children online and addressing the addictive features of social media. At the center of the package is the New Jersey Kids Code Act, a law that could significantly change the way platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other online services interact with users under 18 in the state.
The changes will not happen immediately. The major protections are expected to take effect in 2027, giving online companies time to redesign systems and comply with the new requirements.
No notifications during school hours
One of the easiest provisions for parents and teenagers to understand is also one of the most unusual.
Under the new law, covered online services will not be allowed to send notifications to known minor users between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
During the school year, from Labor Day through Memorial Day, notifications will also be restricted on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
In other words, the familiar buzz, vibration or banner designed to pull a student back into an app could become much quieter during the school day.
The law also says notifications should be turned off by default for minors.
The idea is simple: if a child is sitting in math class, eating lunch at school or trying to sleep at midnight, a platform should not be constantly competing for that child’s attention.
New limits on the algorithm behind the feed
But the law goes much further than notifications.
The modern social-media feed is rarely simply a chronological list of posts. Algorithms study user behavior and decide which videos, photos and posts are most likely to keep someone watching.
For minors in New Jersey, the Kids Code places new restrictions on that process.
Covered platforms generally will not be allowed to use a minor’s personal data to select, recommend or prioritize content through an algorithmic recommendation system unless the recommendation is based on limited circumstances spelled out in the law — such as something the user specifically searched for, explicitly requested or indicated they wanted to see more or less of.
That distinction could fundamentally change the experience of scrolling.
Instead of an algorithm continuously studying a teenager and automatically deciding what will keep that teenager engaged, the law is designed to give the young user greater control over what enters the feed.
Privacy first, not privacy after a child changes the settings
The law also reverses another familiar feature of the internet.
Rather than expecting a child or parent to search through menus and manually increase privacy settings, covered services will be required to provide minors with their highest available level of safety and privacy protection by default.
The legislation also limits how much personal information companies can collect and retain from young users.
If a company collects personal information specifically to verify a user’s age, for example, the law says that information cannot be used for another purpose and generally must be deleted within 15 days after verification.
Minors must also be given an accessible way to block other users, report harms and request that their accounts be unpublished or permanently deleted.
The law also targets features designed to keep children coming back
New Jersey lawmakers are not only concerned about what children see online.
They are also targeting how platforms are designed to keep people using them.
The Kids Code specifically addresses features associated with compulsive use, including the timing of push alerts, digital rewards and streaks, disappearing content that creates urgency and other design techniques intended to encourage users to return repeatedly.
Gov. Sherrill framed the package as an effort to hold technology companies accountable for designing products that compete aggressively for children’s attention. The administration says the legislation is part of a broader Kids’ Online Safety Agenda responding to concerns about youth mental health and social-media use.
Parents could take companies to court
The law also comes with enforcement power.
A minor injured by a violation may bring a civil case, and a parent may sue on the child’s behalf. The New Jersey Attorney General will also have enforcement authority.
Reports on the legislation say statutory damages in some cases could reach $5,000 per violation, potentially giving families a financial remedy when companies fail to follow the new protections.
That makes the law different from a voluntary recommendation asking platforms to “do better.”
It gives the rules legal consequences.
New Jersey is creating a research center too
The Kids Code is only one part of the package signed by Sherrill.
Another measure creates a Social Media Research Center at a four-year public college or university in New Jersey. Its job will include studying social media’s effects, addictive features and emerging risks, particularly for children and adolescents.
A companion measure will also involve the center in developing recommendations related to warnings about mental-health risks associated with social-media use.
That means New Jersey is approaching the issue from two directions at once: regulating current platform design while creating a state-based system to study what comes next.
This is not a ban on social media
The law does not prohibit teenagers from having social-media accounts.
It does not tell them what opinions they may read, which creators they may follow or which videos they are allowed to watch.
Instead, it focuses largely on the machinery behind the screen: notifications, privacy defaults, data collection, recommendation algorithms and design features that can encourage repeated use.
That distinction matters.
New Jersey is not trying to remove the phone from a teenager’s hand.
It is trying to change some of the invisible systems inside the phone that are designed to keep that hand coming back.
From proposal to reality
Only weeks ago, the New Jersey Kids Code was still legislation moving through Trenton. The Legislature passed it on June 30. Now the governor’s signature has turned that debate into a coming set of rules for some of the world’s largest technology companies.
The real test will come when implementation begins.
Can a state meaningfully reduce addictive design without making online services unusable for teenagers?
Can companies redesign recommendation systems without finding new ways around the restrictions?
And will fewer notifications during school and overnight actually change how young people use their phones?
New Jersey has now decided those questions are important enough not to leave entirely to Big Tech.
Starting next year, the state intends to find out what happens when the rules of the feed begin to change.
Sources: Office of the Governor of New Jersey; New Jersey Legislature; NJ Spotlight News; Democratic Governors Association (@DemGovs) via X.
By NJ RADAR Team