A 4643 New Jersey General Assembly · 2024-2025 Regular Session

Creates penalty for child endangerment via use of social media.

This bill amends New Jersey's child endangerment statute (N.J.S.2C:24-4) to explicitly include harmful social media conduct. It makes it a crime for anyone to knowingly use social media in a way likely to harm a child's physical, mental, or moral welfare, or to direct a child into dangerous activities. Violators face penalties based on their relationship to the child: second-degree offenses (5-10 years prison, up to $150,000 fine) if they have a legal duty of care, or third-degree offenses (3-5 years prison, up to $15,000 fine) otherwise. The law applies to all social media platforms and covers actions like posting content that endangers children, regardless of whether the user intended harm.
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jun 2024
Committee Review
Oct 2025
General Assembly Passage
Jun 2025
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Jun 25, 2024 Last action Oct 20, 2025
Floor votes · General Assembly Jun 30, 2025

How they voted

760
Passed · 2 other
Total votes 78
Jun 30, 2025
D Democratic50
49 Yea 1
98% Yea
R Republican28
27 Yea 1
96% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
5
Key actions
2
Committee
3
Oct 20, 2025
Committee
Received in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee
upper
Jun 30, 2025
Lower · Passed
Passed Assembly (78-0-0)
lower
Jun 26, 2025
Lower · Passed
Reported out of Assembly Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading
lower
Jun 26, 2025
Committee
Transferred to Assembly Budget Committee
lower
Jun 25, 2024
Introduced
Introduced in the Assembly, Referred to Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
lower
3 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors