Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed into a law a bill that prohibits minors under 14 years old in the state from having social media accounts.
“Social media harms children in a variety of ways,” Gov. DeSantis said Monday when signing the legislation, House Bill 3 (HB 3), on Monday.
“HB 3 gives parents a greater ability to protect their children. Thank you to [Florida House Speaker Paul Renner] for delivering this landmark legislation,” DeSantis said.
The bill, in addition to requiring social media platforms to terminate accounts held Florida children under 14, requires that the platforms permanently delete all personal information associated with the terminated accounts.
Under HB 3, Minors aged 14 or 15 years of age are allowed to become social media account holders only with the consent of a parent or guardian.
HB 3 also requires that pornographic, sexually explicit, or other websites with material “harmful to minors” use age verification to prevent minors from accessing them.
Republican Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Paul Renner applauded the passage and signing of HB 3, saying Monday that “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.”
“Thanks to Governor DeSantis’ signature, Florida leads the way in protecting children online as states across the country fight to address these dangers,” Renner said.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonprofit free speech advocacy organization, denounced HB 3 as unconstitutional and claimed it “severely restricts Floridians’ access to websites and content on the internet.”
“Just as the First Amendment bars the government from banning adults from communicating online, or banning children from reading newspapers without a parent’s consent, it bars the government from imposing these kinds of regulations on young people’s use of social media,” FIRE wrote in a Monday statement on HB 3.
“Protecting children is a laudable goal, but enacting futile and unconstitutional legislation does not protect anyone,” FIRE wrote.
He also signed bills protecting the take over of your home by illegals. With all the summer homes in Maine and snowbirds going south in the winter why does not our ellected officles US? Get off your butts ellected officals protect your tax payers.
I’m confused, I thought the Republicans policy was parents should raise their children, not the government.
In Florida a 17 year old on snapchat told a fellow teen he was going to kill him. Two days latter he was in the Jail on Stock Island with a 500,000.00 bail. He is still there. Got the message Agusta?