Florida Approved Controversial Law Banning Underage From Using Social Media

[RAMROD 117,023]

The Florida House of Representatives approved on Wednesday a bill aimed at barring children aged 16 and younger from social media platforms, following similar action in several states to limit online risks to young teenagers.

Passed by a bipartisan vote of 106 to 13, the measure would require social media platforms to terminate the accounts of anyone under 17 years old and use a third-party verification system to screen out the underaged.

"We must address the harmful effects social media platforms have on the development and well-being of our kids," said Florida House Speaker Paul Renner.

"Florida has a compelling state interest and duty to protect our children, their mental health, and their childhood."

The bill would also require firms to permanently delete personal information collected from the terminated accounts and let parents bring civil suits against those failing to do so.

The legislation now goes to the Florida state Senate for consideration. Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature.

Sponsors said the measure was necessary to protect children from depression, anxiety and other mental health woes they say are linked to excessive use of social media, whose addictive aspects critics say make children especially vulnerable.

Opponents argued that the bill goes too far, with some urging less restrictive measures, such as letting parents opt in or out of allowing their children to use social media.

Meta (META.O), opens new tab, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, opposed the legislation, usually referred to as HB1, saying it would limit parental discretion and raise data privacy concerns.

"HB 1 would require each new social media user, from a 13-year-old in Miami to a 73-year-old from Boca Raton, to provide possibly sensitive identifying information, such as a driver's license or birth certificate to a third-party organization to verify their age," Meta's Caulder Childs told the House's Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Jan. 17.

Florida is far from the first, and also not the only one. 

Utah became the first U.S. state to adopt laws regulating children's access to social media in March 2023, followed by others, such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Texas, according to a legislative analysis prepared for the Florida bill.

It said numerous other states were also contemplating similar regulations.

In 2015 the European Union in 2015 passed a law requiring parental consent for a child to access social media, the analysis added.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/florida-lawmakers-vote-restrict-childrens-access-social-media-2024-01-25/

[Bling 31,680]

There are pros and cons to this but recently I was visiting the south and was prompted to age verify when I looked at p*rn 

[BUtterfield 8 41,818]

Just so weird that these republican states are gonna let minors work late hours legally but they’re gonna be banned from using social media and can’t vote…

make it make sense 

if they really wanna do this they should make it that a parent can give permission for their child to have social media through verification, not outright ban it.

 

[Helxig 45,336]

I'm kinda here for it tbh... I didn't read the whole thing, but I think social media should be age limited.. like it used to be! In the past to be on social media you had to be 13 or 14 which I think is fair. I have spoken at length about this, but I hate that children share the same online spaces now as adults. 1. it's bad for the kids development etc and 2. it means as adults we have to act online as if we are being watched by children all the time which sucks. When I was younger we had online spaces specifically for kids like Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, Barbie.com, many others where kids went, but that's all gone now and they literally exist online in the same spaces as adults. It's really changed things online and offline. Idk what this whole thing outline and how strict it is but I think if they hold the social media apps accountable with age restrictions it could be a good thing

(also I'm generalising and it's a much broader topic blah blah blah but I only have so much patience to write essays on GGD)

[Bonkers 30,860]

what this is REALLY about is that they want young people to be in a bubble where they can be told LGBT people are gross and god wants you to go to a mega church and slavery wasn't that bad.  And they hope by the time they get online they'll be in the MAGA cult and can't be reached.  

[Roughhouse Dandy 13,608]

This is the one legal decision I agree with Florida on except it's incredibly dumb that (like what was already stated here) kids are apparently grown enough to be working whole jobs and becoming parents but not enough to learn about civil rights or scroll on social media. 

[Lextyr97 20,791]

I don’t hate this because social media platforms are really damaging buuuut we know what this is really about

[Controversiaga 15,996]

I think it’s important for youth to know that there are other kids out there in the world who are like them and share similar interests and that is easy to find on social media and internet but the scary and dangerous thing is creepy adults can create accounts pretending to be the same age as these kids and what not,

needs to be stricter forms of identify/age verification 

[RAMROD 117,023]

49 minutes ago, Bonkers said:

what this is REALLY about is that they want young people to be in a bubble where they can be told LGBT people are gross and god wants you to go to a mega church and slavery wasn't that bad.  And they hope by the time they get online they'll be in the MAGA cult and can't be reached.  

You get it, King

[Ronk 14,930]

Wow.  It's hard to believe that kids wont find a way around the age verification process.

[Ayesha Erotica 1,924]

Kids are seeing flawless models and other popular kids who use filters and then they become depressed at 15 because they are not looking like that and feel ugly; and tbh 95% of content that teens post is kinda non-sense fame-grabbing rubbish and has no good influence.

Social media is making unhappy.

BUT

I think the kids will somehow circumvent the ban

they will use VPNs

creditcards from adult friends

there will come a shadow business in existence in Florida that resolves around teens getting into scoial media

 

[Flapjack 1,264]

This is literally to prevent kids from getting access to information that may be essential for their survival in some cases ala far-right propaganda machines while also preventing them from quickly sharing any crimes committed against them (considering they're trying to employ minors, suspicious p*d* behavior, etc). The main benefits of this are heavily overshadowed by what seems to be the intention behind it. I'm all for preventing weird ass grown people from sexualizing themselves to kids on Tiktok and the like, but whatever positive thing that social media does for youth should be replaced by other means prior to eliminating their access to the world with or without their parents' consent.

[Ronk 14,930]

2 minutes ago, Okinawa said:

Kids are seeing flawless models and other popular kids who use filters and then they become depressed at 15 because they are not looking like that and feel ugly; and tbh 95% of content that teens post is kinda non-sense fame-grabbing rubbish.

Social media is making unhappy.

BUT

I think the kids will somehow circumvent the ban

they will use VPNs

creditcards from adult friends

there will come a shadow business in existence in Florida that resolves around teens getting into scoial media

 

I think so.  Even though the rule is well-intentioned, kids are more tech-savvy than the adults that put the rule in place, and they will find a way.

[SharkmanthaC 115,044]

How do they plan to implement this? Or is it just pass the law so we look good but in reality it’ll never happen. 

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,961]

As others have said, it's about limiting access to information and putting children in a bubble. Essentially rigging elections without rigging elections by indoctrinating them before they can access their own information. I feel like Youtube has a flawed but good foundation for handling content. Requiring creators to declare their audience and age appropriation  for content. Maybe limiting interactions between wide age gaps would be a better approach as well. But taking teenagers offline entirely is completely unnecessary. Had I not found other gay people when I was a teenager I'm not sure I would have made it.