Online safety & content laws in Panama (2026)

Law No. 81 of 26 March 2019, in force from March 2021 with Executive Decree No. 285/2021, establishes GDPR-influenced rules on data processing, individual rights, and cross-border transfers. It is enforced by the National Authority of Transparency and Access to Information (ANTAI) with fines up to 10,000 balboas.

On 10 October 2024 the National Assembly approved amendments to the Criminal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Law 11/2015 on mutual legal assistance, fully aligning Panama with the Budapest Convention. Offences covered include device abuse, unlawful data interception, system-integrity attacks, cyber-harassment of minors, identity theft, and non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

Law No. 51 of 22 July 2008 governs electronic commerce, digital signatures and online transactions. Law No. 79 of 2013 ratified the Budapest Convention, providing the international treaty basis that the 2024 reform built upon.

A 2007 regulation requires online platforms to install software that blocks minors from accessing pornographic material, but Panama has no statutory age-verification mandate comparable to recent UK or EU rules, and platforms are not required to obtain parental consent before a child accesses their services.

Panama has no legislation establishing intermediary liability safe harbours (like US Section 230) or imposing proactive content-moderation duties on online platforms (like the EU Digital Services Act). Latin American intermediary liability defaults to case-law, with liability attaching only where a platform had actual knowledge of illegal content.

Freedom House rates Panama's internet environment as 'Free', with no significant state-mandated blocking or filtering of online content. ASEP (Autoridad Nacional de los Servicios Públicos) regulates telecommunications infrastructure and spectrum but does not have an online-content safety mandate.