Florida House Ready To Pass Social Media Restrictions

TALLAHASSEE – The Florida House is poised to pass a bill aimed at barring children under 16 from using social media, a move some tech experts say is unconstitutional and raises data privacy concerns. .

The House Judiciary Committee voted 17-5 on Wednesday to approve the bill (HB 1), which is a priority of the Representative. Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast. Now the bill can be discussed in its entirety by the House of Representatives, which will definitely be approved.

Renner and other lawmakers maintain that social media sites are harmful to children and the law prohibits those under 16 from creating accounts. The bill would require, in part, social media platforms to block existing accounts of minors under 16 with "reasonable notice" and allow parents to request deletion of minors' accounts.

Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, who sponsored the bill, said that harm to children's mental health "outweighs the benefits when it comes to social media products."

"This is a bold bill," McFarland said. "With this bill we say that social media products are harmful to young people under 16 years of age.

But critics of the bill argue that parents should be able to decide whether their children use social media . The proposal was also criticized on Wednesday by Meta , the parent company of platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, and the technology group NetChoice.

"While our company recognizes the goals of House Bill 1, we believe that this bill, as currently written, not only allows parents to make decisions about whether their teen can use a streaming platform. social networks, but it also does not create a solid industry. "Specific platform for parents and teenagers to manage their online activities. Broad standards help," Calder Harville-Childs, META's Southeast public policy manager, said in a letter to Judiciary Chairman Tommy Gregory, R-Lakewood Ranch.

NetChoice, for its part, posted an affidavit on its website saying the law is "constitutionally flawed." Federal courts have struck down similar social media restrictions in other states, he said.

"If passed, HB 1 would violate the First Amendment rights of minors by limiting access to constitutionally protected speech for anyone under the age of 16 or who refuses to comply with the law's age verification requirements." , the industry group said. he said. "The fact that HB 1 covers the Internet, not books, television shows or video games, does not change the First Amendment issue."

But Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island, said lawmakers sponsoring the bill "have a compelling government interest in protecting our children from, frankly, addictive content and behavior on the platforms."

"I think the clear line we've drawn here is that we recognize that these platforms, this industry, are not appropriate for those under 16," Sirois said.

The bill requires platforms to use third-party organizations to verify age when creating a new account, and requires them to refuse to open accounts for people who do not verify their age. Organizations must delete data after age verification.

Metta Harvill-Sons told the Judiciary Committee that the age verification section of the bill raised "serious constitutional and data privacy issues."

“HB 1 requires each new social media user, from a 13-year-old in Miami to a 73-year-old in Boca Raton, to provide up to one-third of potentially sensitive identifying information, such as a driver's license or birth information. . certificate. . Some said they could use this process on multiple requests to verify their age.

But Sirois said the technology can verify age.

"We are at a point where this technology is there, it is ready, this bill will be implemented in a way that protects everyone's interests and, most importantly, protects our children that we know here." as a mandatory government requirement,” Sirois said.

The Attorney General can file civil charges for violating the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and social media platforms can be fined.

Also on Wednesday, the Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to approve legislation (HB 3) that would require age verification to prevent people under 18 from accessing websites and apps such as pornography.

The bill, also a priority for Reiner, establishes a series of criteria to determine whether online material is harmful, such as "appealing to intellectual interests" and "not having literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors." "

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