New Florida Law Limits Minors’ Access to Social Media
The new law also directs social media platforms to delete accounts belonging to children under 14.
On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that prohibits the use of social media for minors under 14 years old in the state.
The new law, HB3, requires children who are 14 or 15 years of age to receive parental consent before creating a social media account on any platform. Additionally, social media companies that fail to remove any accounts belonging to minors under the age of 14 could be subject to a $50,000 fine for each known violation of the law and could be sued on behalf of the child who created the account, according to NBC. The child would be eligible to be awarded up to $10,000 in damages if a lawsuit is brought against a social media company on their behalf.
The law is set to go into effect in January 2025.
“Ultimately, [we’re] trying to help parents navigate this very difficult terrain that we have now with raising kids, and so I appreciate the work that’s been put in,” Gov. DeSantis explained in a statement shared online. “Now, with things like social media … you can have a kid in the house, safe, seemingly, and then you have predators that can get right in there, into your own home. You can do everything right but they know how to manipulate these different platforms,” he added.
Popular X account End Wokeness celebrated the new law, writing, “Check back in 5-10 years … Productivity will skyrocket. Anxiety and depression will drop. Experts will be ‘baffled’ and ‘puzzled.'”
Earlier this year, the CEOs of nearly every major social media platform, including X, Meta, TikTok, Discord, and Snapchat, testified before Congress regarding the efficacy of safety tools meant to protect children utilizing the platforms. During the hearing, TPUSA reported, Senator Ted Cruz asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg why Instagram’s warning relating to potential child sexual abuse material allows users to select, “See results anyway.”
“Instagram also displayed the following warning screen to individuals who were searching for child abuse material,” Sen. Cruz said during the hearing. “‘These results may contain images of child sexual abuse’ and then you gave users two choices, ‘Get resources,’ or ‘See results anyway.’ Mr. Zuckerberg … [what] were you thinking?”
The new law also follows a wake of similar legislation requiring websites distributing pornography to verify the age of users to ensure that children are not inadvertently accessing adult material. Until now, these laws did not target social media companies directly, some of which still allow obscene content to be viewed and shared online without any method of age verification.
