March 25 (UPI) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill banning those under the age of 14 from signing up for social media accounts.
DeSantis signed House Bill 3 at Cornerstone Classical Academy, a Jacksonville charter school. In a statement, DeSantis said the bill “gives parents a greater ability to protect their children” in what is one of the more restrictive measures in a few states to monitor the social media use of minors.
“Social media harms children in a variety of ways,” said DeSantis, who had vetoed an earlier version of the bill weeks ago which targeted social media users age 16 and under.
The bill will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
In addition to extra age verifications, th bill specifically protects “the ability of Floridians to remain anonymous online, prevents a minor who is younger than 14 years of age from becoming a social media account holder,” and “empowers parents to decide whether 14 and 15-year-olds can have a social media account,” according to the governor’s office.
“You look at young kids and there’s dangers out there. Unfortunately, we’ve got predators,” DeSantis aid at a news conference with Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr.
“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,” DeSantis told reporters. “You can be doing everything right, but they know how to manipulate these different platforms.”
Florida’s Republican House Speaker Paul Renner said the Internet “has become a dark alley for our children where predators target them and dangerous social media leads to higher rates of depression, self-harm, and even suicide.”
“Florida leads the way in protecting children online as states across the country fight to address these dangers,” Renner said in a statement on the bill, which does not name any specific social media companies.
The bill signed Monday by DeSantis is likely to face a first amendment legal challenge as Florida joins other states like California, Ohio, Arkansas and Utah who have also attempted to limit access to social media.
The Florida branch of PEN America — a nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for protection of free expression — said the new law “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.”
“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,” said the free-speech group’s director, Katie Blankenship.