NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennesseans will see several new laws take effect in 2025 that are aimed at protecting minors, preventing sexual assaults, and increasing renters’ rights. TennCare recipients will also receive additional access to birth control.

The “Protect Tennessee Minors Act” ( SB1792 ) requires any pornographic website to take additional steps to ensure the protection of minors from accessing the content. If a website has at least 10 percent of its total content that is considered harmful to children then the website must take specific actions to keep the content from children. The required steps include verifying the age of each user through a “reasonable age-verification method”. The bill also requires the website to verify the age of each user every 60 minutes during usage.

Failure to comply with the law’s requirements is considered a Class C felony and could carry a prison sentence of 3-15 years and a $10,000 fine.

T he “Protecting Children from Social Media Act” ( HB1891 ) requires social media companies to verify the age of a user and requires parental consent for any minor attempting to create an account on a social media platform. The law requires verification of age to be obtained within 14 days of the minor’s attempt to access an existing account. “A social media company must prohibit a minor from becoming an account holder, or continuing as an account holder, unless the social media company has an express consent of the minor’s parent to allow the minor to become or continue as an account holder.” Without proper verification, a social media company is obligated to prevent the minor from creating or maintaining an account.

The Service Industry will see an increase in training requirements ( SB1798 ) targeted at preventing sexual assaults. The law mandates servers to complete an alcohol awareness training once every two years. Those involved in the “direct service of alcohol, wine, or beer by an entity certified by the alcoholic beverage commission” to complete a program that is at least 3.5 hours and entails training on the role of alcohol in sexual assaults and harassment, best practices for ensuring patron safety and bystander intervention, recognizing the role of drugs in assault, as well as training on how to identify victims of human trafficking.

L andlord Transparency with Tenants ( HB1814 ) is increased and provides tenants more rights in 2025. Landlords will now be required to provide their tenants with information on the agent authorized to manage the property, individual or agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner, contact information for maintenance service requests, and a 24-hour phone number for emergencies. It also requires landlords to provide tenants with a way to communicate with the landlord. The landlord will provide this information to the tenants in writing at the time of renting the property or before a lease agreement is signed. If the tenant is not provided this information in writing by the landlord, the tenant has the right to request the information and the landlord has 10 days to provide the information to the tenant.

B irth Control for TennCare Recipients ( SB1919 ) allows those on TennCare to receive a 12-month refill on birth control from their health benefit plan and provides coverage for hormonal birth control. The bill does not require a health benefit plan in order to receive the contraceptives provided by a pharmacy or any other authorized location that dispenses drugs or supplies.

P ublic Safety Officers receive hazard pay ( HB2683 ) as a supplemental benefit in addition to the member’s retirement. Those employed full-time as sheriff, sheriff’s deputy, police officer, correctional officer, or firefighter will be eligible to receive the additional benefit on their pension as long as the individual meets the eligibility for retirement. They must have at least 20 years of service, retire on a service retirement allowance, and the chief governing body of the political subdivision must pass a resolution authorizing a study to determine the liability associated with providing hazardous duty supplemental benefit. The costs associated with providing the supplemental benefit must be paid by the political subdivision and not the state.

Other laws set to take effect include allowing graduate physicians to practice medicine under specific collaborative practice agreements as well as allowing virtual IDs for buying alcohol in grocery stores.

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