TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida's House and Senate Republicans have filed bills to ban minors under age 16 from having social media accounts.
The bills (HB 1 in the House, SB 1788 in the Senate) were filed just ahead of the state's 2024 legislative session.
The legislation is a major priority for House Speaker Paul Renner, who has said that social media is having a “devastating effect on kids”, a frequent charge made against social media companies, including during a 2023 lawsuit where Seattle Public Schools blamed the platforms for adding to the number of students with issues like anxiety, depression, eating disorders and cyberbullying.
According to a Harvard study, social media companies made $11B in US ad revenue by advertising to minors.
"You know, the idea that we can be libertarians where our kids are concerned? We're not libertarians with our kids on anything. Adults are a different story. They wanted to do all that stuff. That's their business. And it's a free country. But for our kids, we’ve got to protect them,” Renner said.
Over the past year, lawmakers in multiple states have decried the negative effects social media has on children. In 2023, Utah passed a law requiring users under 18 to get a parent or guardian's permission before creating a social media account. New York began taking up similar legislation in October.
Under Florida's new bill, social media companies would be required to ban Florida residents younger than 16 from creating new accounts. They would also have to create a system for deleting minors' accounts and honor official requests from parents to close them.
The bill mandates that social media platforms use “reasonable age verifications”, conducted by independent organizations, to check the ages of anyone trying to create a new account. It also empowers the attorney general to sue or fine any social media companies that violate the law.
