Bill banning social media for minors lands on Gov. DeSantis’s desk, after passing the Florida Legislature with bipartisan support.
by Joe Barnett
The Florida Legislature passed a bill banning minors from holding social media accounts, on February 23, sending the legislation to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who could veto the proposal or sign it into law.
H.B. 1, Online Protection for Minors, would prohibit teens less than 16 years old from establishing new social media accounts, require those platforms to verify the age of users, and allow parents to terminate their children’s accounts.
The bill is “a priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican who argues social media harms children’s mental health and can be used by sexual predators,” reported NPR station WUSF.
The bill passed both chambers of the Legislature with widespread bipartisan support, over bipartisan objections based on practical, legal, First Amendment, privacy, and/or parental rights concerns.
Personal Data Privacy
“The bill targets any social media site that tracks user activity, allows children to upload material and interact with others, and uses addictive features designed to cause excessive or compulsive use,” the AP reported, on February 23. “Supporters point to rising suicide rates among children, cyberbullying and predators using social media to prey on kids.
“‘We’re talking about businesses that are using addictive features to engage in mass manipulation of our children to cause them harm,’ said the bill’s Senate sponsor, Republican Erin Grall.”
“’We can’t say that 100% of the uses are bad because they’re not,’ DeSantis said at an Orlando-area news conference before the bill passed,” the AP reported. “’I don’t think it’s there yet, but I hope we can get there in a way that answers parents’ concerns.’”
DeSantis said changes to the bill’s language “which sought to clarify how the law would define social media and make age verification process more private, were not quite enough,” USAToday reported on February 23.
Role of Parents
The legislation does not require parents’ consent to the data collection required for age verification. Parents would not be allowed to authorize their underage children to use banned social media. That has raised concerns about parents’ rights.
“It should be my wife and myself who make that decision, not the state,” said Greg Aguirre, a Florida parent, on the Joyful Warrior podcast with Tiffany Justice, cofounder of Moms for Liberty, a political action group.
“At Moms for Liberty, we believe every parent has the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their child,” Justice said.
Without any federal or state legislation, parents have the ability to control their children’s social media use, writes Steven Greenhut, in Reason magazine.
“In fact, parents have a nearly endless array of tools,” Greenhut writes. “They simply need to enable the filters and voluntary verification processes that are currently offered. The Competitive Enterprise Institute lists dozens of filter blockers from social media companies, Internet Service Providers, gaming companies, web browsers, and operating systems, as well as standalone app controls.”
Privacy Concerns
The bill also has a carve-out for social media sites like Discord, Snapchat, and Youtube. This could have unintended consequences because it “funnels kids to Snapchat,” which is kids’ favorite social media app, said Aguirre.
The liability of platforms for inadequate age verification measures under the proposed law could lead to the collection of sensitive private data, such as drivers license and social security numbers, and even biometric data, James Czerniawski, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Prosperity, said on the podcast. Age verification laws for social media in other countries have led to extensive markets for fake identification, said Czerniawski.
Free Speech
There are also First Amendment concerns, which Moms for Liberty understands, said Justice, because “they have been labeled domestic terrorists and a hate group.”
Other states have passed legislation similar to the Florida bill, but have faced legal challenges. Laws enacted in Ohio and Arkansas have been struck down by federal courts, but those decisions could be appealed.
DeSantis has until Friday, March 1 to sign or veto the bill, or let it become law without his signature.
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