Connecticut and Maryland child online safety laws take effect October 1

Connecticut and Maryland enacted comprehensive child online safety measures that took effect on October 1, 2024. Connecticut law prohibits design features intended to significantly increase minor use such as endless scrolling, bars unsolicited direct messaging from adults to minors, and restricts geolocation data collection without opt-in consent, while also requiring data protection impact assessments for products likely accessed by children. Maryland Kids Code mandates default privacy settings for children, prohibits collection of minors precise location data, and similarly requires data protection impact assessments for child-accessible products.

Mandatory design constraints and blanket feature restrictions shape the user environment but do not address the substance of contact a child receives within permitted interactions. Targeted threat detection identifies harmful contact patterns within lawful communication channels, intercepting grooming escalation, coercive sextortion and adult-to-minor harassment regardless of platform design, and surfaces acute-risk conversations to the decision-maker best positioned to intervene—whether that is a parent, a school, or an investigating authority—without requiring every user to forfeit privacy through upfront identity verification.