Internet & Online Safety · Puerto Rico
Online safety & content laws in Puerto Rico (2026)
Puerto Rico shaded by its internet & online safety status
As a U.S. territory, Puerto Rico is covered by federal internet rules: Section 230 provides broad platform immunity for third-party content, while there is no comprehensive federal online-safety law in force (KOSA and COPPA 2.0 remain pending in Congress as of 2026). Puerto Rico has enacted its own targeted measures, notably the Children and Youth Cyber-Privacy Protection Act (Act 185-2024, effective March 1, 2025), plus data-privacy and cybersecurity statutes. The overall picture is a patchwork of partial rules rather than a single comprehensive content-moderation/online-safety framework.
Key points
Federal 47 U.S.C. §230 grants interactive computer services broad immunity from liability for third-party (user) content, while still requiring removal of material violating federal criminal, IP, and sex-trafficking law. This applies in Puerto Rico as U.S. federal law.
Unlike the EU DSA or UK OSA, the U.S. has no enacted comprehensive online-safety statute. The Kids Online Safety Act (S.1748) and COPPA 2.0 advanced through committees in early 2026 but were not yet in force.
The Children and Youth Cyber-Privacy Protection Act, signed Aug 27, 2024 and effective March 1, 2025, bars publishing a minor's personal information on social networking platforms without consent of the minor and parents/guardians, for users under 18 residing in Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rico Telecommunications Bureau (Negociado de Telecomunicaciones) regulates, receives complaints, and enforces Act 185-2024, with fines up to $25,000 per violation.
No general age-verification mandate is in force. Federal proposals (KOSA, App Store Accountability Act) direct study of device/OS-level age checks rather than mandating verification; Puerto Rico's Act 185 focuses on minors' data privacy rather than age-gating.
Puerto Rico's broader digital rules include the Citizen Notice on Databank Security Act (Act 111-2005), the Privacy Policy Notification Act (Act 39-2012), DACO Regulation 9158, and the Cybersecurity Act (Act 40-2024), which shape obligations on platforms handling residents' data.
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