March 25(Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on
Monday signed a bill that bans children aged under 14 from
social media platforms and requires 14- and 15-year-olds to get
parental consent, a measure supporters say will protect them
from online risks to their mental health.
The measure requires social media platforms to terminate the
accounts of people under 14 and those of people under 16 who do
not have parental consent. It requires them to use a third-party
verification system to screen out those who are underage.
The state’s Republican-led legislature passed a bill in
February that would have banned children under 16 from social
media entirely. DeSantis, a Republican, vetoed that bill earlier
this month, saying it limited parents’ rights.
The amended version allows for parents to provide consent
for older children to engage on social media platforms. It will
become law on July 1.
“Social media harms children in a variety of ways,” DeSantis
said in a statement. He said the legislation “gives parents a
greater ability to protect their children.”
Supporters have said the legislation will stem the harmful
effects of social media on the well-being of children who use
such platforms excessively and may experience anxiety,
depression and other mental illnesses as a result.
Critics have said the bill violates the U.S. Constitution’s
First Amendment protections for free speech and that parents,
not the government, should make decisions about the online
presence of their children of all ages.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook,
opposed the legislation, saying it would limit parental
discretion and raise data privacy concerns because of the
personal information users would have to provide to be
age-verified. Meta has said it supports federal legislation for
online app stores to secure parental approval for downloads by
children.
The bill does not name any specific social media platforms,
but states that its targets are social media sites that promote
“infinite scrolling,” display reaction metrics such as likes,
feature auto-play videos and have live-streaming and push
notifications. It would exempt websites and apps whose main
function is email, messaging or texting between a particular
sender and recipient.
The measure requires social media companies to permanently
delete personal information collected from terminated accounts
and let parents bring civil lawsuits against those failing to do
so.
In March 2023 Utah became the first U.S. state to adopt laws
regulating children’s access to social media, followed by others
including Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Texas, according to a
legislative analysis prepared for the Florida bill. The analysis
said numerous other states were contemplating similar
regulations.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Washington; Editing by Frank
McGurty and Nia Williams)
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