HB 829: 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 build model programs teaching students in grades six through 12 about online safety, including topics like cyberbullying and sharing personal material online. This bill expands that required curriculum to also cover the dangers of material harmful to minors and how websites verify a user's age. It also requires the Department of Education to publish guidance on its website about secure browsing practices and parental controls, alongside the existing curriculum materials. The bill separately amends Georgia's online safety law (O.C.G.A. § 39-5-5), which covers age verification by commercial websites and access to material harmful to minors. It adds a new requirement that the Attorney General publish an annual report on enforcement actions taken under that law. The Department of Education would then use that report to evaluate how well its own online safety education efforts are reaching students. No specific effective date is listed beyond the standard process for a signed bill.

• Adds instruction on the dangers of material harmful to minors and on website age verification procedures to the state's model online safety curriculum for grades six through 12.
• Requires the Department of Education to publish guidance on secure browsing practices and parental controls on its website alongside existing curriculum materials.
• Requires the Department of Education to review the Attorney General's new annual enforcement report to assess how well online safety education is working.
• Requires the Attorney General to publish an annual report on 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, local school boards that choose to adopt online safety curriculum, the Department of Education, which must update materials and publish new guidance, and the Attorney General's office, which must produce the new annual enforcement report.

Georgia students would receive more specific classroom instruction on harmful online content and age verification, and parents and schools would get new state guidance on browsing safety and parental controls. Publishing enforcement data annually would also make the state's online safety law enforcement record more visible to the public.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 20-2-149 to add instruction on the dangers of material harmful to minors and on age verification procedures to the required topics in the model online safety curriculum.
• Section 1 requires the Department of Education to publish guidance on secure browsing best practices and parental controls alongside its existing curriculum materials online.
• Section 1 adds a new requirement that the Department of Education evaluate the Attorney General's annual report to assess the reach and impact of its online safety education efforts.
• Section 2 adds a new subsection (g) to O.C.G.A. § 39-5-5 requiring the Attorney General to publish an annual report on enforcement actions taken under that Code section.
• Section 3 repeals any 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
• school curriculum
• parental controls
• age verification
• Attorney General enforcement