TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill that would ban social media accounts for kids under 16 with plans to consider a "different, superior bill."
The governor shared the news Friday afternoon in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
DeSantis said it's important to both protect children from the harms of social media and support parents' rights — echoing the sentiment of several critics who felt HB 1 was an overreach of individual expression.
HB 1 would have banned kids under 16 years old from creating accounts on some platforms deemed to have "addictive features" using a third-party verification system. Minors owning existing accounts could have lost them, too.
"I don't love a ban," mom Emalee Gabriel previously said about the proposed bill. "I don't like government having a hand. I don't think that's up to them."
Clay Calvert, a non-resident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, also felt the bill was too broad and too flawed.
"The legislation is well-intended but essentially it's just unconstitutional because it goes far too far," Calvert said. "When we think about it, who bears responsibility here for minors? Is it the government or parents?"
Other parents were in full support of the bill, arguing that kids' safety and mental health takes priority.
"Protecting children from harms associated with social media is important, as is supporting parents’ rights and maintaining the ability of adults to engage in anonymous speech," DeSantis said in the post.
He added that he anticipates a new bill will recognize those needs and be signed into law "soon."
10 Tampa Bay's Miguel Octavio contributed to this report.