The Florida Legislature has quickly passed a bill that would force social media companies to ban most minors from their platforms.
After being approved by the Senate, the bill passed the state House of Representatives on Thursday and now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who says he is not yet ready to sign it.
DeSantis told reporters Friday that he believes there needs to be a “proper balance” between government regulation and parent input on social media issues.
“We’re going to wrestle with it,” he said.
The governor said he would evaluate the final version of the bill, likely over the weekend.
“Federal law says no one under the age of 13 can have a social media account. It’s not really enforced,” he said.
Mr. DeSantis, who put his candidacy on hold for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination in January, has advocated curbing the media and conversations available to children outside of family settings. He defended efforts to censor public school books and sexual discussion in public schools.
Lawmakers who supported the social media ban say it would require platforms to verify users’ ages through third-party sources, making the online environment safer for young people.
In a 2023 Pew Research survey, one-third of teens ages 13 to 17 said they use the most popular social media platforms “almost always.” They also found that smartphone ownership is nearly universal among the teens surveyed, cutting across genders, age groups, economic backgrounds, and races and ethnicities.
“It’s time to take decisive action to protect our most vulnerable people: our children,” said Florida Sen. Erin Goulart (R), one of the bill’s leading sponsors. wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“We’re talking about companies that use addictive features to manipulate and harm children at scale,” Gural said Thursday in the Florida Senate. He further stated in the floor.
The bill passed within hours Thursday, 108-7 in the state House of Representatives and 23-14 in the Florida Senate.
Gural, a Florida lawyer and mother of three, did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
Representatives for Meta, the parent company of Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. X’s news agency responded to a request for comment with an automated message: “We’re busy at the moment, so please check back later.”
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