Under the new law, kids younger than 14 won’t be allowed to have their own social media accounts in Florida.
14 and 15 year olds will only be able to open or keep a social media account with a parent or guardian’s permission.
And social media sites have 90 days to delete social media accounts for anyone under the age of 14, and 14 and 15 year olds who don’t get a parent or guardian’s permission.
Once these accounts are deleted, social media sites must permanently delete all personal information shared on them.
But despite the law taking effect on January 1, the state won’t legally enforce it until February. The law is currently being challenged in court by two separate lawsuits.
The first suit filed by tech industry groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association in October claims the law infringes on First Amendment rights.
A preliminary injunction hearing about whether the law should be blocked will be held on February 28. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker will preside.
The law also blocks anyone under the age of 18 from accessing “materials harmful to minors” which could include porn sites.
Sites must verify a person’s age using an anonymous or standard age verification method, and if anonymous age verification is used, it must be conducted by a third party not associated with the government. All information used to verify a person’s age must be deleted.
The second lawsuit filed by adult entertainment group Free Speech Coalition in December, claims this age verification hurts adults as well as minors and is keeping young people from sex ed materials online.
Regardless of how these two lawsuits play out, it’s still unclear which social media sites the law applies to.
The law defines a social media site as any that does the following:
- Allows users to upload content or view the content or activity of other users
- Ten percent or more of the daily active users who are younger than 16 years of age spend on average 2 hours per day or longer on the online forum, website, or application on the days when using the online forum, website, or application
- Employs algorithms that analyze user data or information on users to select content for users
- Has any of the following addictive features: infinite scrolling, push notifications or alerts, personal interactive metrics, auto-play capabilities, or live-streaming
And says the following sites are exempt from the law:
- an online service, website, or application where the exclusive function is e-mail or direct messaging consisting of text, photographs, pictures, images, or videos shared only between the sender and the recipients, without displaying or posting publicly or to other users not specifically identified as the recipients by the sender
If the law becomes enforceable, social media companies could be subject to penalties under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act for not complying with it.
Penalties would include a $50,000 fine per violation of the law, attorney fees and court costs.
The law passed with bipartisan support. Republican lawmakers including Governor Ron DeSantis claim the law is needed to protect minors from age-inappropriate content and the detrimental mental health effects of social media use in young people.
At least twelve states including Florida, have passed legislation limiting social media access for minors.
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