Proposed Florida Law Could Delete Your Kid’s Social Media Accounts
On Tuesday, the Florida House will take up House Bill 1, which prevents minors under the age of 16 from creating social media accounts. The bill would also require social media platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram to delete accounts known to be held by minors under the age of 16. Another aspect of the bill is to provide additional ways to have children’s accounts terminated, such as a request from a parent. The bill would also give jurisdiction of social media platforms violating these rules to the state courts. This proposed Florida law could essentially delete your kid’s social media accounts.
The law would also require a disclaimer at log in for users under 18. It reads “This application may be harmful to your mental health and may use design features that have addictive qualities or present unverified information or that may be manipulated by [insert platform name] or others for your viewing. This application may also collect your personal data to further manipulate your viewable content and may share your personal data with others.”
If the new proposed Florida law passes, it will take effect on July 1, 2024.
Similar laws have been proposed in California, but with intense lobbying from tech giants, those efforts have stalled. Privacy advocates cite the first amendment in these issues.
Here’s the language of the Florida bill.
“An act relating to social media use for minors; requiring social media platforms to prohibit certain minors from creating new accounts, to terminate certain accounts and provide additional options for termination of such accounts, to use reasonable age verification methods to verify the ages of account holders, and to disclose specified policies and provide specified resources, measures, and disclaimers; authorizing the Department of Legal Affairs to bring actions for violations under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act; providing penalties; providing for private causes of actions; providing that certain social media platforms are subject to the jurisdiction of state courts; providing construction; authorizing the department to adopt rules; providing an effective date.”
According to Tampafp “the House also will take up a bill (HB 3), sponsored by Rep. Chase Tramont, R-Port Orange, and Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Palm City, that would require age verification to try to prevent people under age 18 from having access to such things as pornography on websites and apps.”
