State Children's Privacy Law Tracker / Montana
Montana Children's Privacy Laws (2026)
1 law tracked · overall: In force · current as of July 18, 2026
Montana has one tracked children's privacy law, each listed below with its status, the ages it covers, litigation posture, and a link to the official primary source. For the interactive view, open Montana in the tracker map.
Montana Consumer Data Privacy Act: minors' protections (SB 297 amendments, Ch. 567, Laws of 2025) · SB 297 (Ch. 567, Laws of 2025); MCDPA codified at MCA 30-14-2801 et seq.
In force: Effective and enforceable today. · Age assurance · effective 2025-10-01 · binds operators, developers
Ages: Under 18 (minor); under 13 requires COPPA verifiable parental consent; 13-17 requires the minor's own consent
Requires: Amends the MTCDPA to impose child-directed (age-appropriate-design) duties on controllers that know or willfully disregard a consumer is a minor (under 18): a duty of reasonable care to avoid a heightened risk of harm to minors; consent before processing a minor's data for targeted advertising, sale, certain profiling, extended retention, or precise geolocation (the minor's own consent for ages 13-17, COPPA verifiable parental consent under 13); restrictions on dark patterns and design features that significantly increase, sustain, or extend a minor's use; and data protection assessments for processing presenting a heightened risk to minors. These minor-specific duties apply with no numerical applicability thresholds. Expressly does NOT require age verification or age-gating, but provides a safe harbor for commercially reasonable age estimation.
Litigation: None found. No lawsuit or injunction against SB 297's minors provisions. (Distinct from the unrelated Montana pornography age-verification law challenged in Free Speech Coalition v. Knudsen, which is out of scope here.)
Primary sourceEntry last reviewed
Also on the books (out of scope): SB 544 (2023), as amended by Ch. 199, Laws of 2025: Age Verification for Material Harmful to Minors (MCA 30-14-159), adult-content age-verification law, in force since Jan. 1, 2024. Out-of-scope mandates (like adult-content age-gates) are tracked separately and don't set this state's status.
Regardless of state law, COPPA governs personal information collected from children under 13: notice, verifiable parental consent, data minimization, and (under the 2025 amended Rule) limits on retention and third-party sharing.
SourceHow Montana compares
- Age assurance: Montana is one of 5 states tracking age assurance legislation: Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania
- Privacy law (minors): Montana is one of 24 states tracking privacy law (minors) legislation: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana and 17 more
Not legal advice. I build products for a living; I'm not a lawyer. Compiled from primary sources and reviewed monthly as part of the State Children's Privacy Law Tracker; AI-assisted research, verified against each law's official source, but laws and injunctions change fast, so confirm the latest before relying on it. Related: COPPA's Gray Areas.
Cite this page: Calvo, Isaac A. "Montana: Children's Privacy Laws." isaaccalvo.com/child-privacy-laws/montana (data as of 2026-07-18).