Florida Legislature Passes Another Social Media Bill Aimed at Protecting Minors

This picture taken in Moscow on October 5, 2021 shows the US online social media and social networking service Facebook's logo (R), the US instant messaging software Whatsapp's logo (L) and the US social network Instagram's logo (C) on a smartphone screen. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images

With two days left in this year’s legislative session, Florida lawmakers sent their second attempt at regulating social media to the desk of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

House Bill 3: Online Protections for Minors was passed by the State Senate on March 6 with a vote of 30–5 after voting in favor of an amendment that essentially transformed the broader bill into a rewritten version of the one Mr. DeSantis vetoed last week. It was sent back to the House of Representatives and was passed to the governor’s office with a vote of 109–4. The original version passed unanimously.

Unlike its vetoed predecessor, HB-1, HB-3 initially did not demand that social media entities identify and terminate any accounts made by children younger than 16, regardless of the parent’s opinion about the account’s existence. It also did not prohibit those minors from being able to create new accounts.

Rather, it broadly targeted companies that digitally distribute and publish content deemed harmful to minors, set requirements for age verification, and set prohibitions on companies’ ability to retain certain data and personal information.

But an amendment put forward by Republican Sen. Erin Grall changed the bill to add a new section on top of the original bill that follows HB-1’s lead in defining social media platforms and requiring that those platforms identify and terminate all accounts held by minors under the age of 16.

This version does go further than HB-1 in a few ways, such as specifically outlining legislation for minors aged 14 and 15 and minors under the age of 14 and allowing parents and guardians to have the final say in whether or not their children can maintain a social media account.

“A social media platform shall prohibit a minor who is younger than 14 years of age from entering into a contract with a social media platform to become an account holder,” the bill states.

All minors would be given 90 days to dispute the account’s termination, but if a minor under the age of 16 requests their account be deleted, the platform has five business days to terminate it. If a parent or guardian requests the account be terminated, the social media platform would have 10 business days to comply. All personal information held by the company must also be terminated.

It also outlines how social media platforms could face legal action under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, which includes facing civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation.

A social media platform that allows a minor under the age of 15 to create an account, the bill reads, “is considered to be both engaged in substantial and not isolated activities within this state and operating, conducting, engaging in, or carrying on a business and doing business in this state, and is therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state.”

“HB 3 will empower parents to control what their children can access online while also protecting minors from the harm caused by addictive social media platforms,” Florida’s House Speaker Paul Renner said on X. “This balance ensures that while you, as parents, have the power to guide your children’s online activities, the law is also there to protect them.”

Ms. Grall’s office could not be reached for further comment.

The bill awaits Mr. DeSantis’s signature and, if signed, will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.