HB829: HB829 Education, Department of; publish guidance relating to best practices for secure browsing and parental controls; require

Georgia law already directs the Department of Education to create model programs teaching students about online safety, covering topics like social media's effects on mental health, cyberbullying, and how to report suspicious online behavior. This bill expands that law in a few ways. It requires the department to publish, on its website, guidance about best practices for secure browsing and parental controls, alongside the existing model curricula. It also adds new instructional topics students should learn, including age verification procedures on websites and social media, and how to recognize predatory behavior and human trafficking online. Separately, the bill amends Georgia's online safety law that covers commercial age verification and access to material harmful to minors (O.C.G.A. § 39-5-5). It adds a requirement that the Attorney General publish an annual report documenting enforcement actions taken under that law, and directs the Department of Education to review that report when evaluating its own online safety education efforts.

• Requires the Department of Education to publish website guidance on best practices for secure browsing and parental controls alongside its existing online safety curricula.
• Adds new required instructional topics for students in grades six through 12, including age verification procedures and recognizing predatory behavior and human trafficking online.
• Requires the Department of Education to evaluate the Attorney General's annual enforcement report when assessing its own online safety education efforts.
• Requires the Attorney General to publish an annual report documenting enforcement actions taken under Georgia's commercial age verification and online safety law (O.C.G.A. § 39-5-5).

Public school students in grades six through 12 and local school boards that adopt online safety curricula, the Department of Education, which must update its guidance and materials, and the Attorney General's office, which must produce a new annual enforcement report.

Parents and schools would gain a state-published resource on secure browsing and parental controls, students would receive expanded lessons on recognizing online predators and trafficking, and the public would get an annual public accounting of how Georgia's online safety law is actually being enforced.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 20-2-149 to add age verification procedures and identifying predatory behavior and human trafficking to the required student instruction topics.
• Section 1 requires the Department of Education to publish guidance on secure browsing and parental controls on its website along with model curricula.
• Section 1 requires the Department of Education to evaluate the Attorney General's new enforcement report when assessing the reach and impact of its online safety education efforts.
• Section 2 adds subsection (g) to O.C.G.A. § 39-5-5 requiring the Attorney General to publish an annual report documenting enforcement actions under that Code section.
• Section 3 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2026-03-03House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
2. 2025-03-28House Second Readers (House)
3. 2025-03-27House First Readers (House)
4. 2025-03-25House Hopper (House)

• Arlene Beckles (D, HD-096)Primary sponsor
• Carolyn Hugley (D, HD-141)
• Spencer Frye (D, HD-122)
• Al Williams (D, HD-168)
• Robert Flournoy (D, HD-074)
• Segun Adeyina (D, HD-110)

• online safety
• parental controls
• school curriculum
• social media regulation
• attorney general enforcement