Tennessee
Tennessee's Protect Tennessee Minors Act (adult content age verification, enacted 2024, effective 2025) and Protecting Children from Social Media Act (enacted 2024, effective 2025) are both currently enforceable, though both remain under active federal court challenge. The Sixth Circuit vacated an injunction against the adult content law on November 4, 2025 following the Supreme Court's decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, and remanded for further proceedings. A Sixth Circuit appeal of the denial of a preliminary injunction against the social media law was argued in February 2026. An app store age verification bill (HB 2254) died in a House subcommittee in 2026, and Tennessee has not enacted a design code law.
Subnational jurisdiction. Reviewed 2026-07-15.
Protect Tennessee Minors Act (SB 1792/HB 1614, 2024 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 1021)
Requires an individual or commercial entity that publishes or distributes a website on which one third or more of total content is content harmful to minors to perform reasonable age verification before granting access, and to re-verify after each age-verified session of at most 60 minutes. Verifiers must retain seven years of anonymized age verification data and may not retain personally identifying information. A violation is a Class C felony.
- Citation
- Tenn. Code Ann. section 39-17-912
- Status
- In force
- Effective date
- 2025-01-01
- Applies to
- Private sector
- Age threshold
- 18
- Verification methods
- gov id, transactional data
- Covered services
- Websites where thirty-three and one-third percent or more of the total data is content harmful to minors.
- Penalties
- Class C felony for a violation of the age verification or data retention requirements; civil damages liability to individuals harmed.
- Enforcement body
- Tennessee Attorney General may bring actions; individuals may sue for damages from a minor's access or from unlawful retention of identifying information.
- Private right of action
- yes
- Litigation
- Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Skrmetti, No. 2:24-cv-02933 (W.D. Tenn.); appeal No. 24-6158 (6th Cir.), U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, formerly on appeal to the Sixth Circuit, Preliminarily enjoined on December 30, 2024, before the law took effect. The Sixth Circuit stayed that injunction on January 13, 2025, allowing enforcement to proceed, and on November 4, 2025 vacated the injunction and remanded for proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court's June 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. The law is enforceable as of this date.
- Source
- Tenn. Code Ann. section 39-17-912
Protecting Children from Social Media Act (HB 1891/SB 2097, 2024 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 899)
Requires social media companies to verify the age of prospective Tennessee account holders, obtain express parental consent before a minor under 18 can create or keep an account, let a parent revoke that consent, and provide parents supervisory tools including privacy settings visibility, daily time restrictions, and mandatory breaks.
- Citation
- Tenn. Code Ann. sections 47-18-5701 to 47-18-5706
- Status
- In force
- Effective date
- 2025-01-01
- Applies to
- Private sector
- Age threshold
- 18
- Verification methods
- parental consent
- Covered services
- Social media platforms as statutorily defined operating in Tennessee.
- Enforcement body
- Tennessee Attorney General
- Private right of action
- no
- Litigation
- NetChoice, LLC v. Skrmetti, No. 3:24-cv-01191 (M.D. Tenn.); appeal No. 25-5660 (6th Cir.), U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, on appeal to the Sixth Circuit, The district court denied a preliminary injunction on June 20, 2025, finding no irreparable harm and without reaching the First Amendment merits. NetChoice's appeal of that denial was argued before the Sixth Circuit on February 4, 2026 and remains pending, with a multistate coalition of attorneys general filing a brief supporting Tennessee.
- Source
- Tenn. Code Ann. sections 47-18-5701 to 47-18-5706
Reviewed 2026-07-15. Confidence: high. Fast-moving area, verify before relying. Not legal advice.