Adopt the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act

Brief

What this bill does

If it passes, what actually changes?

This is a new consumer-protection law. It creates design, privacy, and advertising duties that certain large online services owe to users they know are under eighteen.

• Sections 1 to 9 create the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act; Section 10 makes it operative January 1, 2026.
• Coverage requires over $25 million revenue, data on 50,000 consumers, and 50 percent of revenue from data sales.
• Section 4 requires minor-facing controls over messaging, visibility, feeds, purchases, and geolocation, defaulted to highest protection.
• Section 5 bars targeted advertising to covered minors and push alerts 10 p.m.–6 a.m. and school-day 8 a.m.–4 p.m.
• Section 6 requires parental tools, enabled by default for any user the service knows is under thirteen.
• Section 9 makes violations deceptive trade practices, with civil penalties up to $50,000 per violation starting July 1, 2026.

What it says it is for

Does it do what it claims?

The title matches the text. The bill does adopt the named act, set an operative date, and provide severability, though the act's reach is narrower than its name suggests.

• Section 1 names the act and Sections 2 through 9 supply its actual requirements.
• The promised operative date appears in Section 10; the promised severability appears in Section 11.
• Section 2(5)(a) narrows coverage to firms earning at least half their revenue from selling or sharing personal data.
• Section 8 reaches beyond design into advertising content, banning narcotics, tobacco, gambling, and alcohol ads to minors.
• No new agency or rulemaking is created; Section 9 routes enforcement through the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Where Scripture bears on it

What does the Bible say about this?

LB504 raises whether a state may lay special duties on the largest online services for the sake of children who cannot bargain for themselves, and whether a rule that binds firms above a revenue line while exempting those below it is one law evenly applied. Scripture says nothing about feeds, push alerts, or geolocation, so the bearing is thematic rather than direct: it speaks to law being good when used lawfully, and to a single standard covering insider and stranger alike.

• "But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;" 1 Timothy 1:8
• "Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them." Numbers 15:29

These verses do not settle where the $25 million and 50,000-consumer thresholds should fall, whether defaults set to highest protection are wise, whether eighteen or thirteen is the right line, or what a violation should cost.

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Tri (turn 3, both legs live): all three converged on the same theme — law's goodness conditional on right use — and all three chose two verses from the same small pool. Grok (grok-4.3) paired 1 Timothy 1:8 with Romans 7:16; Groq (openai/gpt-oss-120b) paired Romans 7:16 with Numbers 15:29; I took 1 Timothy 1:8 + Numbers 15:29 because both attach to concrete features of this bill (the penalty regime, the coverage thresholds) rather than to Paul's inward struggle, which has no counterpart in a corporate-duty statute. I verified all quoted text character-for-character against the candidate list; every quote in all three answers was exact. Neither external leg stated that the connection is thematic rather than direct, which the instructions require — mine does.

The case each way

What is the strongest argument for, and against?

The disagreement is whether default-on protections for minors are worth imposing design mandates on large data-driven platforms.

• For: Sections 4(3) and 5(8) set the safest option as the default, so protection does not require a child to act.
• For: Section 5(2) states services need not collect data to comply, avoiding a blanket age-verification mandate.
• For: The $50,000 per-violation penalty in Section 9(3) gives these duties enforcement weight.
• Against: The revenue and 50-percent data-sales tests in Section 2(5) exclude many services minors actually use.
• Against: Section 5(6)'s notification blackout turns on "school year" and local time, terms the bill never defines.
• Against: Section 2(1) counts inferred age as knowledge, which may push services toward more age profiling.

What is unsettled

What should I be careful about?

This reading covers only what the bill text itself says; several practical effects are left open.

• The text contains no appropriation and states no cost to the state or to businesses.
• "School year," "week days," and "reasonable limits" appear in Sections 5 and 6 undefined.
• No agency receives rulemaking power, and no enforcement procedure for the Attorney General is described.
• Whether individuals can sue depends on the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which this text does not reproduce.
• Section 2(5)(c) exempts services with under two percent minor users but gives no measurement method.
• Section 2(5)(a)(iii) requires odd-year inflation adjustment of the $25 million threshold without naming who performs it.

Text (4)

• Enrollment And Review Er21 (application/pdf)
• Final Reading (application/pdf)
• Introduced (application/pdf)
• Slip Law (application/pdf)

Each link opens the Legislature's own document. The text itself is not in our database yet (fetched lazily); when it lands these pages will carry it verbatim.

All Actions (33)

Votes (7)

Every roll call as the Legislature recorded it, with each member's vote by name.

Sponsors (1)

• Sen. Carolyn Bosn [District 25] — primary sponsor

Amendments (6)

Fiscal Notes & Statements (5)

• Committee Statement — Committee Statement
• Document — Dungan MO45 (failed)
• Document — Enrollment and Review ST16 (recorded)
• Fiscal Note — Fiscal Note
• Statement of Intent — Statement of Intent

The Legislature's own companion documents; each link opens the official copy.

Committees (1)

Related Bills (0)

No related bill information was received for LB504.