Florida bans social media for kids under 14

The Florida legislation is part of a broader effort by some states to clamp down on social media firms amid rising concern over their impact on youth mental health and their role in spreading sexually explicit content. States such as Arkansas and Ohio have enacted laws requiring minors to secure parental approval for social media accounts. But those measures have faced legal challenges, as has a children’s digital privacy law in California.

Netchoice, a lobbying group that includes Meta, TikTok and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, had urged DeSantis to veto the bill, saying it was unconstitutional and would prove ineffective in protecting Floridians.

“HB 3 forces Floridians to hand over sensitive personal information to websites or lose their access to critical information channels,” said Carl Szabo, NetChoice’s vice president and general counsel. “This infringes on Floridians’ First Amendment rights to share and access speech online.”

In addition to the parental-consent requirements for 14- and 15-year-olds, the Florida law extends an age-verified ban on social media to 13-year-olds. A 1998 law already restricts how children under 13 access the internet, which is why many social media companies technically don’t allow younger users to start accounts. Congress has considered raising the age of those restrictions to users under the age of 17, but that legislation hasn’t advanced.