Colombia bills target SIMs, social media, utilities

Colombia’s Congress is weighing three bills that add security, registration and data-protection duties in telecommunications, social media and public utilities. Senate Bill 204 of 2026 would create a national SIM card registry, House Bill 208 of 2026, called "Niños Sin Redes," would set rules for minors on social media, and Senate Bill 210 of 2026 would tighten protections for users of residential public services.

What does Senate Bill 204 of 2026 on SIM cards propose?

Senate Bill 204 of 2026 aims to regulate the sale, activation, registration and use of physical or virtual SIM cards, create a National SIM Card Registration Database, and set obligations for service providers. It also adds a sanctions regime and explicitly says one of its purposes is to combat crime carried out through these tools, with the goal of strengthening telecom security and protecting users’ personal data.

Congreso Visible lists the initiative as an ordinary bill, under number 204/26 in the Senate. According to that same source, the file was recently introduced and no gazette document is available on the public listing yet, so open tracking still depends on later legislative progress.

What changes with "Niños Sin Redes"?

House Bill 208 of 2026, called "Niños Sin Redes," seeks to comprehensively protect children and adolescents from risks linked to social media use. To do that, it proposes a minimum age to create and keep accounts, proportional age-verification mechanisms, and security and responsible-design obligations for providers.

Congreso Visible classifies the initiative as a statutory bill and places it under the secondary topic of communications, media and information technologies. The public version of the bill also repeats that it includes proportional age-verification mechanisms and security and responsible-design duties for social media providers.

What does the public utilities bill seek to do?

Senate Bill 210 of 2026 aims to strengthen the material, timely and effective protection of users of residential public utilities and expand the powers of the Public Utilities Superintendence in inspection, oversight and control. It also provides for prevention, remediation, monitoring and non-repetition mechanisms in response to rights violations, and includes reinforced controls over how providers handle user information.

Congreso Visible lists this initiative as a statutory bill and assigns it number 210/26 in the Senate. Among the initiatives reviewed, the common thread is that none of them amounts to a full cybersecurity law on its own, but each adds digital compliance duties, data protection requirements and oversight of platforms and services.