Arkansas Social Media Safety Act Mandates Third-Party Age Verification and Parental Consent

The Arkansas General Assembly passed the Social Media Safety Act (Act 689 / SB 396), establishing legal requirements for commercial social media networks to protect underage residents from algorithmic exploitation and compulsive digital consumption.

The statute requires covered platforms to verify the age of account holders using independent, secure verification methods. For any user determined to be a minor under 18, the platform must obtain explicit, verifiable parental consent prior to granting account access.

State lawmakers designed the act to empower families with actionable boundaries against persuasive platform architecture. Non-compliant technology services face substantial monetary damages and enforcement actions initiated by the state attorney general.

Complementing parental efforts to monitor mobile screen boundaries transparently on a device, Limitra App Block features an on-device status timeline and event log that records lock triggers and limit events locally without external tracking.