JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a revamped version of a bill that would ban children under 14 from having social media accounts, one of the country’s most restrictive social media bans for minors.
DeSantis had vetoed an earlier version of the bill that targeted social media users under 16 and would have banned them regardless of parent consent.
Lawmakers worked with DeSantis to craft legislation that he would approve, which now focuses on children under 14 and keeps parents in the equation.
The bill, in part, would prevent children under 14 from opening accounts. Parents can give consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts.
The bill is widely expected to face legal challenges from the tech industry which would be tasked with verifying the ages of their users.
Bryson Winters of Jacksonville is only 3 years old but he has his own iPhone.
“He plays games on it and has learnings on it,” said grandfather Richard Winters. “I wanted to put a message on there. This is Bryson Winters. He’s a little I’m too young to take calls. But just give me a few years and I’ll be glad to return your call when I get of age.”
His grandfather said Bryson’s screentime is limited and of course he’s entirely too young for social media.
But just how young is too young? According to the new legislation, the answer is 14.
DeSantis signed that legislation during a news conference at Cornerstone Classical Academy on St. Johns Bluff Road in Jacksonville.
“You look at young kids and there’s dangers out there. Unfortunately, we’ve got predators. It used to be, ‘Well if they are out somewhere, maybe they are not being supervised, maybe some predator can strike.’ Now, with things like social media, you can have a kid in the house, safe seemingly, and then predators that can get right in there into your home. You can be doing everything right, but they know how to manipulate these different platforms,” DeSantis said.
Attorney General Ashley Moody, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. and House Speaker Paul Renner, who championed the legislation, also spoke at the news conference.
Renner, R-Palm Coast, made cracking down on social media perhaps the highest-profile issue of this year’s legislative session. He contends that social media use harms children’s mental health and can lead to sexual predators communicating with minors.
“This is something that I believe will save the current generation and generations to come if we’re successful,” Renner said after the bill passed.
Social media notifications and auto-play videos are some of the addictive social media features Florida lawmakers said are dangerous to children’s mental health.
“If I said that a company is going to take children, use addiction and use them for profit, what does that sound like? Sounds like trafficking to me,” Renner said.
House Bill 3 would require social media companies to ban accounts belonging to someone under the age of 14 to be on sites like Instagram and TikTok. Kids older than 14 would need a parent’s permission.
Proponents of the bill said it will “literally save the lives of children.”
Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican who helped sponsor the bill, said that if social media “is the new town square, then God help us.”
“For our children, social media is no town square,” Sirois said. “It is a dark alley.”
The tech industry and free-speech groups have already signaled that the bill is likely to face a First Amendment court challenge.
“Outright banning minors from social media sites does not address the potential harm they may encounter on social media sites but instead prohibits them from sharing and engaging in constitutionally protected speech,” Katie Blankenship, director of the free-speech group PEN America Florida, said in a statement this week. “We know social media sites can present significant risks to minors, but the state’s response to such risks should be tailored to minimize harm, not passing measures that violate Floridans’ constitutional rights.”
Moody said she is ready to fight them in court.
The bill does not name social-media platforms that would be affected. But it includes a definition of such platforms, with criteria related to such things as algorithms, “addictive features” and allowing users to view the content or activities of other users.
Supporters hope to ensure compliance by opening social media platforms to lawsuits for violations of the age restrictions. That would include lawsuits filed by the state attorney general and lawsuits filed on behalf of minors.
“We’re putting the onus here on the companies,” Sirois said.
But cyber security expert Chris Hamer said having the tech companies be responsible for enforcement puts “a very serious burden on them that most of them are either incapable or unwilling to take on.”
“The problem is, technologically speaking, you can use a VPN to change your location, you can lie on your birthday, and there’s nothing that they can do short of having a third party, verify your identification, which means now you’re warehousing people’s personal information on a whole other platform that may or may not be secure. We’re just creating more problems,” Hamer said.
Instead of social media companies taking on the burden of banning underage accounts, it’s possible they could operate similar to how sports gambling apps work. They could ban everyone in Florida from using social media sites.
“It’s far easier for them to say, OK, nobody in Florida gets to use TikTok, or nobody in Florida gets to use this service, then try to figure out who’s over 13, who’s over 16, who has parental permission, who doesn’t,” Hamer said.
Hamer suggested that if the bill goes into effect, it might be enforced based on the honor system.
“When you log in for a new account, and they ask your age, it’s not like they’re going to hold up your screen, turn on your camera, send people to your door, to verify that you’re actually born in the year you say you were. It’s just a click option. So it’s always been an honor system,” he said. “It will be very difficult for the platforms to enforce. And if they tried to force their hand, it will be easier for the platforms to just shut down in that area.”
The bill would also require age verification to try to prevent minors under age 18 from having access to online pornographic sites.
The law will now go into effect on Jan. 1.