Florida prohibits minors under 14 years of age from having social networks

The state of Florida has just ratified one of the most restrictive laws in the United States to limit minors’ access to social networks.

Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a controversial bill passed by the state Congress that prohibits minors under 14 from having social media accounts and requires 15- and 16-year-olds to ask their parents for permission before opening them.

The law will take effect on January 1, 2025 . Social media platforms such as Instagram,

The regulations also require companies to use a third-party verification system to screen out minors. “Social media harms children in many ways,” DeSantis said in a statement. The legislation “gives parents greater ability to protect their children.”

DeSantis and the promoters of the law maintain that the mental health of children and adolescents can be affected by the content of social networks and the interactions they have on these platforms.

The law signed by the Republican governor is a bit far from the legislative proposal that he himself vetoed last month. The Florida legislature then approved a bill that completely prohibited the access of minors under 16 years of age to social networks.

However, DeSantis rejected it, considering that the ban limited parental rights. Supporters of the rule hope that the legislation will put a stop to the harmful effects such as anxiety, depression, addiction and other mental illnesses that plague minors due to online interactions.

Critics of the law, on the other hand, point out that the law violates the protections of the First Amendment of the US Constitution to freedom of expression , considering that parents, and not the government, are responsible for making decisions about the presence of their children, of all ages, on social networks.

Goal Rejection

The company created by Mark Zuckerberg, parent company of Instagram and Facebook, was the only one that opposed the legislation, arguing that it will present privacy problems for users’ personal data, by having to provide personal information to verify their age.

However, the company was in favor of federal legislation so that when downloading online applications, parental approval is guaranteed for children to do so.

The Florida law does not refer to any specific social network, but states that it targets sites that promote “infinite browsing”, display reaction metrics such as “likes”, include auto-playing videos and have broadcasts. live and notifications. Since all these interactions have addictive effects on users.

In this way, websites and applications whose main function is email or text messages, such as WhatsApp, between a sender and a recipient without unlimited interactions, are exempt from the regulations .

The measure forces social media companies to permanently delete personal information collected from terminated accounts and allows parents to file civil lawsuits against companies that fail to do so.

In March 2023, Utah became the first state in the country to adopt laws to regulate children’s access to social media, followed by Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Texas. Other states in the country such as New Jersey are studying similar regulations.

SOURCE