The Best & Worst US States for Kids' Online Safety in 2025
In 2025, digital platforms have become a central part of childhood. From early morning YouTube sessions over cereal bowls to multiplayer games streamed across the country, today's kids interact with the internet more deeply and frequently than any generation before them. Social media apps target children under 13 with increasing precision, while online games foster friendships—sometimes with people kids have never met in person. And when families gather around the screen to enjoy music videos, TV show clips, or home movies, what feels like wholesome entertainment often opens the door to hidden risks.
Meet Tina, a curious 11-year-old from Nebraska. Last spring, she began watching influencer challenges on her tablet after school. Harmless fun at first, until one video funneled her to a chat-based game where she began receiving inappropriate messages from a fake profile posing as a teen. Her parents found out only after her behavior changed; the damage had already begun. Tina’s story isn’t isolated—it reflects a broader national concern.
So how well are different US states protecting children like Tina from online threats in 2025? The answer varies widely. Some states have implemented robust legislative safeguards, school-based digital literacy programs, and active parental tech coalitions. Others lag behind on regulation and enforcement. This report separates the leaders from the laggards by examining where it's safest—and riskiest—for children navigating the digital landscape today.
To evaluate online safety for children across all 50 states, the process began with data aggregation from reliable and nationally recognized sources. Key inputs included:
The scoring model used six weighted metrics, each representing a specific aspect of digital safety:
Each state’s overall score was calculated using a composite index. This index normalized the data across all six metrics, assigning weighted values based on relevance and direct impact. Tools used in this process included:
States gained or lost points based on their relative performance within each category. For example, if a state enacted legislation requiring parental approval before data collection for children under 13, it scored higher in regulatory protection. If another state lacked punishment guidelines for digital harassment in schools, it ranked lower in law enforcement readiness.
This methodology ensured that each ranking reflects a comprehensive, multidimensional view of how states are protecting—and failing to protect—kids in the digital age.
Massachusetts leads the nation in kid-focused online safety, integrating legal, educational, and technological strategies into a consistent, statewide framework. The state enforces the Massachusetts Student Data Privacy Agreement (MSDPA), which binds educational technology vendors to strict data handling requirements. This legal structure prevents unauthorized sharing of student data and has seen adoption by over 100 school districts across the Bay State.
Cyber safety doesn’t stop at legislation. The state’s Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation runs year-round educational campaigns teaching families about digital rights, secure password habits, and the risks tied to social media exposure.
Public schools in Massachusetts embed digital literacy as a core component of K–12 curricula. Starting in elementary grades, students receive instruction on evaluating information sources, identifying cyberbullying, and managing digital footprints.
The Massachusetts State Police Cyber Crime Unit maintains real-time collaboration with ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Forces. In 2024, this coordination resulted in over 320 successful operations targeting online child predators and digital exploitation schemes.
On the home front, families benefit from a dedicated state portal, MassCyberCenter Kids Online, which offers curated resources, app safety ratings, and instructions on using built-in parental controls across devices.
Home to Silicon Valley, California balances innovation with youth protection. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, set to go into effect in early 2025, mandates that online services accessed by minors configure privacy settings to the highest level by default. This law significantly curtails geolocation tracking, behavioral profiling, and data collection unless a clear benefit to the child is demonstrated.
The California Cybersecurity Integration Center (Cal-CSIC) funds digital safety outreach programs in all counties. In early 2024, its SafeNet CA campaign reached over 850,000 parents and educators through webinars, downloadable toolkits, and interactive school workshops.
Digital literacy is embedded in the state’s revised Media Arts standards. By middle school, students undertake scenario-based curricula covering phishing risks, emotional impact of digital interactions, and ethical use of AI tools.
The Technology Crimes Unit within the California Department of Justice works across jurisdictions to tackle child exploitation. In partnership with the California Highway Patrol Cybercrime Unit, 2023 saw a 41% increase in successful operations targeting illegal child data trading networks.
The California State Library hosts the Digital Wellness Hub, which offers live chat support for parents, app blocking recommendations, and device-by-device tutorials on activating family safety features.
New Jersey blends robust legal protections with localized cyber safety infrastructure. The New Jersey Student Data Privacy Act governs how personal and biometric data is collected, stored, and shared. It holds both state entities and private edtech companies to data minimization and encryption standards.
In 2024, the state launched ProtectNJKids Online, a partnership between the Department of Education and the Office of Homeland Security. This initiative deploys mobile safety labs to schools in all 21 counties, where students interact with cybersecurity professionals and learn real-world incident response skills.
New Jersey mandates digital citizenship education beginning in grade 3. Students learn not only how to navigate the internet safely but also how algorithms influence what’s seen and why.
With a dedicated Cyber Crimes Unit nested within the New Jersey State Police, the state earned recognition from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for its high clearance rate in digital abuse investigations affecting minors.
Parents benefit from the state's centralized Family Online Safety Resource Center, which connects guardians to vetted software solutions and provides monthly updates on trending online threats among youth.
Washington State integrates online child safety into every tier of its digital infrastructure. The Washington Student Data Privacy Alliance standardizes data protection contracts between schools and vendors, reducing loopholes in student data usage. As of 2025, 313 districts participate in this alliance.
The Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction publishes annual guidance that requires all public schools to teach comprehensive media literacy skills. Lesson plans include interactive digital ethics modules and platform-specific risk assessments.
The SecureOurKids initiative, coordinated though the Washington State Office of Cybersecurity, provides training to over 5,000 parents and teachers each quarter through an expansive webinar series and local command center meetings.
Washington State Patrol’s Missing and Exploited Children Task Force collaborates with the FBI on interception tech and behavioral analytics to detect grooming behavior early. In 2023, the task force achieved a 95% response rate to reported incidents within 24 hours.
Residents can access WA ConnectSafe, a multi-platform browser extension endorsed by the state that blocks adult content, flags suspicious messaging, and provides real-time prompts for family discussions based on user behavior patterns.
Illinois ranks high for its integrated approach to safeguarding children online. The Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA), revised in 2022, forces all school districts to publicly disclose what software their students use and what data each application collects. This reporting structure boosts transparency and gives parents full oversight.
The Illinois State Board of Education funds digital safety coordinators across 50+ regional offices. These specialists provide in-school training, host family tech nights, and build district-specific protocols for reporting digital abuse or harassment.
Since 2024, statewide standards for digital literacy require schools to assess students’ online critical thinking skills at three grade levels. Lessons simulate real-time decision-making in social media environments and include AI-generated misinformation detection.
Law enforcement maintains strong digital crime units within both the Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff’s Office. In the last 18 months, collaboration among these units has resulted in the takedown of at least 36 child trafficking-related dark web networks based in the Midwest.
Parents and educators can use the TechWise Illinois platform, which includes age-based tools, push alerts for newly flagged apps, and a built-in forum moderated by licensed child psychologists who answer digital behavior questions.
Mississippi lands near the bottom of the rankings with large gaps in digital education and minimal cybercrime enforcement aimed at protecting minors. The state currently lacks a statewide online safety curriculum, leaving most schools to decide individually whether to address internet literacy. This leads to inconsistent learning experiences and many children falling through the cracks.
Legislatively, Mississippi hasn’t passed any comprehensive regulations around children’s digital safety in schools or at home. Cybercrime units are under-resourced, resulting in long delays between incident reporting and investigation. Public schools still use aging desktop systems, many without updated antivirus software, and teacher training on digital issues remains sporadic.
Alabama shows similar structural problems. Schools are not mandated to offer online safety education, and no statewide framework currently exists for digital literacy. According to 2024 data from Education Superhighway, over 30% of Alabama’s public schools still operate on outdated internet connections or rely on obsolete classroom hardware.
The Alabama Department of Education has yet to introduce any specific teacher training programs focused on cyberbullying, phishing awareness, or responsible social media use. Meanwhile, child-centered cybercrime enforcement remains limited to larger cities, leaving rural areas exposed.
In South Dakota, a mixture of legislative inaction and infrastructure neglect pushes the state near the bottom. There’s no requirement for public schools to teach any aspect of online safety or privacy, and education funding allocations rarely prioritize technology upgrades.
Educator preparedness is low—less than 20% of elementary and middle school teachers in the state reported receiving training on digital safeguarding according to the 2024 National Center for Education Statistics. State-level law enforcement only provides one dedicated digital crimes officer to cover youth-related cyber issues across the entire state.
Louisiana faces consistent digital vulnerabilities due to policy paralysis and lack of urgency. No formal digital literacy curriculum exists statewide. Most school systems do not offer online safety modules, even in health or civics classes.
A 2023 state audit revealed that over 40% of school campuses lacked basic digital content filtering or usage tracking mechanisms. Law enforcement, although active in child endangerment cases, has placed limited emphasis on cybercrime prevention or education. Response protocols remain reactive rather than proactive, and outreach programs are virtually non-existent outside of urban districts.
At the very bottom of the list, West Virginia exhibits a combination of outdated infrastructure, legislative stagnation, and limited public initiatives. The state hasn’t passed any laws requiring online safety education, nor are there standards guiding schools to implement them voluntarily.
Many rural districts still rely on hardware over a decade old, and broadband access remains inconsistent in large parts of the state. Professional development for teachers rarely includes cybersecurity or digital ethics, and law enforcement lacks a dedicated online crimes unit for youth-related investigations. Despite increased national awareness, West Virginia’s governmental response has remained static, failing to deliver any significant policy or funding shifts in the past two years.
Different states vary significantly in how they regulate digital safety tools in homes and schools. In 2025, California, New York, and Washington led with robust requirements for device-level parental control installations on all state-funded school-issued tablets and laptops used by students under 13. These mandates go beyond content filtering—they require real-time monitoring tools, activity reports, and scheduled screen downtime capabilities.
Meanwhile, states like Mississippi and Idaho place control entirely in the hands of parents, offering no statewide guidelines for digital monitoring on either public devices or home tech used for remote learning. In those states, legislation neither enforces nor incentivizes the implementation of device monitoring, leaving many families dependent on commercial software without public support or funding.
Government-supported access to high-performing parental control tools is uneven. For example, Massachusetts provides statewide student licenses for Bark and Qustodio Pro, funded through its 2023 Digital Family Protection Act. These tools include social media monitoring, SMS alerting of flagged language, YouTube monitoring, and geofencing—features tailored for modern digital parenting.
By contrast, fewer than 10% of public schools in Arkansas or South Dakota offer even basic training on software like Net Nanny or Norton Family. Parents in these states must purchase subscriptions independently, with no tax incentives or reimbursements available.
Across all 50 states, families face a common question: Is our home a digitally safe space for kids? This checklist identifies signs commonly found in households prioritizing online safety in 2025.
How many of these tools are required, suggested, or fully supported depends heavily on state policy. Looking ahead, states like Illinois and Oregon plan to integrate advanced parental control tech into elementary schools' digital citizenship curriculum, while others are leaving the choice entirely to the discretion of families.
State-level data from the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) shows sharp contrasts in cyberbullying rates across the United States. In Montana, 28.6% of high school students reported being electronically bullied in the past year—the highest in the country. New Hampshire followed closely at 26.3%. Meanwhile, states like California and Oregon reported significantly lower rates, at 12.1% and 13.5% respectively.
These numbers reflect more than just screen-level conflict. They point directly to disparities in digital education, parental oversight, and institutional responsiveness. Some states heavily incorporate anti-cyberbullying curriculum into school standards; others leave it to individual districts.
The relationship between cyberbullying and child mental health doesn’t leave room for speculation. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2023) links electronic harassment with increased levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation among youth. In states with high cyberbullying rates—like Montana, Arkansas, and Indiana—self-reported mental distress among teens also tracks 20–30% higher than the national average.
A 2024 CDC cross-sectional study found that teens in states reporting frequent online harassment were 47% more likely to screen positive for moderate to severe depression compared to peers in lower-risk states.
Several states stand out by taking an integrated approach. In Colorado, the Digital Mindfulness Network—a partnership between Denver Public Schools and the University of Colorado—offers weekly in-school sessions that blend mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and responsible internet use.
Similarly, in Massachusetts, the Safe Futures Foundation runs a statewide initiative delivering tech-literacy workshops paired with cognitive-behavioral support tailored for middle schools. These structured programs prioritize emotional awareness alongside technical knowledge, giving students practical tools to identify harmful behavior and seek support.
Children in states with regulated screen time guidelines and public health campaigns targeting responsible device use are sleeping more—and reporting fewer mental health issues. In Vermont, where school districts follow a statewide recommendation of a maximum of two hours of recreational screen time per day, youth depression rates remain 8% below the national average.
Contrast this with Texas, where no such state-level screen guidance exists. Adolescents there spend an average of 6.8 hours per day on recreational digital media, and teen reports of chronic anxiety exceed national benchmarks by 19%.
This isn’t conjecture—it’s direct correlation. States that invest in regulating screen time awareness and promote digital balance see healthier emotional profiles in teens. The data confirms that how digital behaviors are shaped regionally influences how youth navigate both their devices—and their emotions.
Online safety education in U.S. schools follows a sharply uneven pattern. As of 2025, only 18 states mandate digital citizenship instruction as part of their K-12 curriculum. Among these, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Utah have embedded comprehensive modules that address privacy, misinformation, and social media ethics. In contrast, large states like Texas and Florida have no statewide requirement, leaving curriculum decisions to local districts.
States ranked highest in the 2025 online safety education index—Rhode Island, Washington, and California—integrate digital literacy beginning in elementary school. These states align digital safety with their broader computer science frameworks, ensuring reinforcement through multiple subjects including English, social studies, and technology.
Only 11 states require specific instruction on data privacy. Of those, Oregon and New Jersey provide model lesson plans tied to Common Core standards and include scenarios involving data brokers, social media consent, and browser tracking. North Carolina, with its 2023 “Digital Futures Act,” became the first state to mandate annual online misinformation simulations in public high schools.
Teachers at Cranston Public Schools in Rhode Island walk students through real-life digital decisions. In a Grade 7 computer science class, students dissect screenshots from manipulated TikTok videos to learn how fake narratives spread online. According to Linda Amari, a district technology coordinator, “We treat misinformation like a virus. Students need to understand how it mutates and spreads. That’s as critical as understanding math or grammar.”
8th grade assignments frequently include personal data audits—students trace where their information is stored and review app permissions. They discuss how data aggregators function and simulate deleting digital trails across various platforms.
In high school ethics seminars, guided by state standards, learners explore the societal impact of trolling, cancel culture, and algorithmic echo chambers. Group projects challenge them to develop responsible sharing campaigns, complete with hashtag strategy, influencer outreach plans, and a risk-analysis of viral content.
Rhode Island’s success stems from a systemic approach: state funding for educator training, curriculum evaluation every two years, and a requirement for digital behavior portfolios as part of graduation readiness. Other states, even those with similar policies on paper, fall short due to inconsistent rollout or lack of teacher preparedness.
State-level engagement with child cybercrime varies widely, and some states deploy far more robust mechanisms than others. Effective defense against online threats targeting children depends heavily on whether a state maintains an active Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, collaborates with national law enforcement, and provides accessible reporting tools for the public.
ICAC task forces—which are federally funded but locally operated—play a foundational role in investigating internet-based child exploitation. As of 2025, 61 such task forces are spread across all 50 states, but the resources, staffing, and prosecution rates differ sharply from one jurisdiction to the next.
Ease of reporting directly influences the likelihood that online abuse cases are flagged and investigated. States that deploy intuitive, mobile-accessible portals tend to see higher reporting rates and earlier intervention. For example, Colorado’s cyber tip system integrates with school alert networks and mandates response within 24 hours, which contributed to a 22% increase in actionable tips in 2024 alone.
Detective Carla Jimenez from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement shared a pointed observation during a 2024 task force summit: “We can’t protect what we don’t understand. That’s why we train like our kids’ lives depend on it—because they do.” Officers in Florida attend quarterly training updates covering emerging apps, behavioral profiling, and cross-platform data correlation. This ongoing education model has since been adopted by Kentucky and Massachusetts.
In contrast, several states reported budget constraints that limit officer training to basic digital forensics only once every two years. This gap in understanding leads directly to slower case resolution and lower conviction rates for online offenses against minors.
Online safety doesn't begin and end with parental controls or legislation. It lives in the daily digital experiences of children—especially in the tools they use for learning, exploring, and entertainment. Some states recognize this and have prioritized equitable access to curated, secure, and age-appropriate resources at both home and school levels.
State-led initiatives differ widely across the country. In Massachusetts and Washington, education departments provide centralized digital hubs packed with vetted content, helping parents guide safe online behavior. For example, Massachusetts’ Digital Learning Advisory Council recommends platforms like Common Sense Media and NetSmartz for home use, integrating them into public school parent portals.
In contrast, states like Mississippi and Alabama offer limited coordinated access, placing a larger burden on parents to seek tools independently.
Many states that excel in this area ensure not just access, but simplicity. Connecticut’s “Internet Safe Kids Toolkit,” made by the state Board of Education, combines browser plug-ins, app recommendations, and printable tips for parents and guardians—all organized by student grade level.
States such as California and Utah have pioneered open educational resource (OER) policies, making safe learning content widely accessible. California’s K–12 Online Content Project funds filtered academic video libraries and eBooks, updated regularly, and flagged for educational relevance and child safety.
Utah’s Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) distributes filtered ChromeBook software to all public schools, combining secure browsing with academic apps such as Canva for Education and Book Creator. These platforms operate inside walled-garden ecosystems, reducing the risk of exposure to harmful or inappropriate content.
Several states actively curate media offerings tailored to children’s learning and entertainment. Oregon integrates educational YouTube playlists into its curriculum portals—collections that include Smithsonian’s SciShow Kids and PBS Kids content, specifically aggregated by grade and subject area.
Illinois has taken it a step further by partnering with music tech companies to push child-safe streaming platforms like Spotify Kids and JAM Jr into its school music programs. With district-level choice, schools in Chicago and Springfield have adopted apps that auto-filter explicit lyrics and serve music actually used in the arts curriculum.
While access and filtering matter, several states go further by teaching exit strategies. In Vermont and Minnesota, digital citizenship classes emphasize responsible disengagement—backing up work, signing out of accounts, and minimizing screen fatigue. Lesson plans in schools include “device wind-down” routines starting as early as first grade. This routine handling of digital closure reinforces healthy tech habits that follow kids home.
How does your state stack up? Accessing curated digital tools isn't just a tech issue—it's a matter of policy, priority, and will. The difference starts by examining not only what’s available, but also how kids are taught to use it.
Across the U.S., digital safety messaging now reaches kids not just through schools but via YouTube ads, TikTok stories, podcasts, radio jingles, and even local libraries. States that top the leaderboard for kids’ online safety in 2025 didn’t get there by coincidence—each of them invested in sustained, multidimensional public awareness efforts.
Florida’s “SafeSurf Jr.” campaign, launched in early 2023, combined billboard reminders with sponsored Roblox workshops. By fall 2024, over 530,000 elementary students had viewed the in-school modules, with 87% of teachers reporting increased classroom discussions about online risk behavior.
Utah, leveraging federal funding through the STOP Act pilot program, rolled out “Clear Click,” a state-wide strategy involving libraries and broadband providers. The campaign saw a 138% increase in hotline reports of suspected grooming behavior in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.
On the federal level, the Department of Justice funded the Digital Shield Grant Program—$320 million allocated across 19 states for child-specific cyber safety initiatives. While grants set the stage, results vary widely. California’s Office of Digital Equity used its $21.8 million share to partner with parent influencers and publish multilingual educational reels, resulting in over 11 million views on TikTok by September 2024.
North Dakota, however, directed its grant toward law enforcement infrastructure, leading to better reporting systems but far fewer public education campaigns. As a result, hotline engagement remained static, underlining a key truth: dollars alone don’t change behavior unless paired with visibility and narrative impact.
In mid-2024, a fictional yet evocative county-level video titled “What Tina Learned Online” surfaced from New Hanover County, NC. Designed with the pacing of a Netflix teen drama, the 3-minute video follows 11-year-old Tina as she navigates in-game chat rooms, unsolicited friend requests, and location-tracking plugins.
Released exclusively on platforms children frequent—YouTube Kids, Twitch, and Discord—the PSA garnered 2.3 million views within its first two weeks, as well as a 4,000% increase in county-level downloads of the SafeTech Parental Toolkit. Teachers and counselors from across the state reported integrating the video into class discussions, citing its relatability and sharp narrative frame as major engagement drivers.
Community feedback posted on local school websites and social media credited the “Tina” campaign with opening conversations at dinner tables. The video’s concise format and authentic dialogue showed measurable influence: one middle school saw a 47% increase in voluntary student reporting of suspicious activity the month following the campaign’s debut.
Campaigns that combine state-level strategy with local narrative and direct youth-facing content aren’t just raising awareness—they’re producing quantifiable shifts in behavior and dialog.
Online safety isn’t static. Technology will evolve, platforms will shift, and threats to children's digital wellbeing will adapt—quickly. That’s why accountability must continue at the state level. Families, educators, law enforcement, and policymakers all bear responsibility in closing the safety gap between leading and lagging states.
Several states made measurable progress in 2025 through targeted legislation, expanded school-based digital literacy programs, and specialized cybercrime law enforcement. Others, however, continued to underinvest, especially in underserved districts and rural areas where broadband still doesn't equate to safe access.
Compare Vermont—ranked in the top five for child online safety thanks to mandatory school education programs and budget allocation for statewide parental control tools—with Mississippi, where kids remain at higher risk due in part to minimal state-led interventions and weak policy infrastructure. The differences aren’t abstract; they’re measurable and reformable.
Any state struggling to address child online safety can accelerate by adopting proven models. Some of the most impactful steps include:
No need to start from scratch. The roadmap is already visible.
Enforcement and education both matter—but without the third leg, family involvement, the structure collapses. Districts showing the highest resilience to cyberbullying incidents proactively trained teachers, equipped parents with localized safety guidelines, and invested in tools that monitor app use without violating child privacy laws.
Collaboration doesn’t require large-scale bureaucracy. A group of parents in Georgia launched a community-sourced app review database in 2025, flagging suspicious apps based on real usage reports. Colorado’s Department of Education integrated it into their recommended family resources in under six months.
The data points to action. Start with our free 2025 State Online Safety Toolkit—a curated guide for parents, teachers, and policymakers tailored to each state’s current digital protections and gaps.
Or, for a more personal approach: share Tina's Story. Her struggles—and success—in navigating online threats at age 12 catalyzed a statewide campaign in Oregon. One voice changed policy. Yours could too.
