March 27, (THEWILL)- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a social media bill into law banning children under the age of 14 from having accounts and requiring children aged 14 to 16 to have parental consent to hold one.
In addition to restrictions on teenage use of social media, the law, known as HB 3, also requires age verification for anyone who wants to visit pornographic websites.
“Social media harms children in a variety of ways. HB 3 gives parents a greater ability to protect their children”, DeSantis said in a statement.
While the new law is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2025, it also makes Florida the latest of a series of states in the US to debate or pass laws that restrict how young people access social media.
Other states that have pushed similar bills include Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Utah, though many of those bills are tied up in legal challenges over privacy and free speech concerns.
California is also considering similar legislation called, Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction, which is sponsored by the state’s attorney general and co-authored by a bipartisan group of state senators.
The laws are part of a series of efforts by legislators around the world to ramp up regulation of the tech industry. The European Union recently handed out massive fines and enacted new rules forcing changes to how Apple, Alphabet, Meta and others compete and interoperate with one another.
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