
Jan 24 (Reuters) – The Florida House of Representatives
approved on Wednesday a bill aimed at barring children aged 16
and younger from social media platforms, following similar
action in several states to limit online risks to young
teenagers.
Passed by a bipartisan vote of 106 to 13, the measure would
require social media platforms to terminate the accounts of
anyone under 17 years old and use a third-party verification
system to screen out the underaged.
“We must address the harmful effects social media platforms
have on the development and well-being of our kids,” said
Florida House Speaker Paul Renner.
“Florida has a compelling state interest and duty to protect
our children, their mental health, and their childhood.”
The bill would also require firms to permanently delete
personal information collected from the terminated accounts and
let parents bring civil suits against those failing to do so.
The legislation now goes to the Florida state Senate for
consideration. Republicans control both chambers of the state
legislature.
Sponsors said the measure was necessary to protect children
from depression, anxiety and other mental health woes they say
are linked to excessive use of social media, whose addictive
aspects critics say make children especially vulnerable.
Opponents argued that the bill goes too far, with some
urging less restrictive measures, such as letting parents opt in
or out of allowing their children to use social media.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook,
opposed the legislation, usually referred to as HB1, saying it
would limit parental discretion and raise data privacy concerns.
“HB 1 would require each new social media user, from a
13-year-old in Miami to a 73-year-old from Boca Raton, to
provide possibly sensitive identifying information, such as a
driver’s license or birth certificate to a third-party
organization to verify their age,” Meta’s Caulder Childs told
the House’s Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Jan. 17.
Meta says it supports federal legislation for online app
stores to secure parents’ approval for downloads by teenagers
younger than 16.
The Florida measure does not identify any internet companies
by name.
Instead it defines a social media platform as an online
forum that tracks account holders’ activity by letting them
create user profiles, then upload content or view the content or
activities of other users and interact with, or track, them.
Among the defining social media functions highlighted by the
bill are “addictive, harmful or deceptive design features” or
those that induce “an excessive or compulsive need to use or
engage with” the platform.
But the measure exempts websites and applications whose
predominant function is email, messaging or texting, as well as
streaming services, news, sports and entertainment sites, along
with online shopping, gaming and academic sites.
Utah became the first U.S. state to adopt laws regulating
children’s access to social media in March 2023, followed by
others, such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Texas, according
to a legislative analysis prepared for the Florida bill.
It said numerous other states were also contemplating
similar regulations.
In 2015 the European Union in 2015 passed a law requiring
parental consent for a child to access social media, the
analysis added.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Caitlin
Webber and Clarence Fernandez)