Online safety & content laws in Costa Rica (2026)

Freedom House rated Costa Rica 86/100 in Freedom on the Net 2025, ranking it the top country for internet freedom in Latin America and among the top four globally. No government-imposed website blocks or connectivity restrictions have been recorded.

Draft Law 23,184 — modelled closely on the EU Digital Services Act — was approved by the Legislative Assembly in its second and final debate on 16 April 2026. It requires hosting providers, search engines and online platforms to implement illegal-content reporting mechanisms, bans dark patterns, and mandates transparency obligations; it covers any provider offering digital services in the Costa Rican market. It enters into force 12 months after publication in La Gaceta.

Bill 25,336, advanced unanimously by the Legislative Assembly's Youth, Children and Adolescents Committee in April 2026, would prohibit children under 14 from creating or using social-media accounts. SUTEL would enforce compliance with fines of 15–50 base salaries, rising to 30–50 for repeat violations; platforms could also face operational restrictions and mandatory remediation plans.

Bill 24,063, also active in the legislature, would introduce criminal offences of electronic sexual harassment of minors, sexual disturbance and sexual extortion specifically targeting online conduct, extending protections for children against digital exploitation.

The 2011 Law on the Protection of Individuals Against the Processing of Their Personal Data (Law No. 8968), regulated by Executive Decree 37554-JP, is the primary horizontal privacy instrument and applies to online data processing. The PRODHAB agency supervises enforcement. Three reform bills were active as of early 2026, including regulation of biometric-data consent.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal proposed reforms to the electoral code that would prohibit anonymous/inauthentic accounts for campaign propaganda, require platforms to designate a legal representative in Costa Rica, and empower the TSE to order removal of electoral misinformation during campaign periods. These proposals had not been enacted as of May 2026.