Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: Florida's social media law has been temporarily blocked by a federal
judge

Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2025 12:30:04 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/social-media/florida...

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Florida's new law that bans some
children from using social media and requires parental consent for others,
according to court documents. Judge Mark Walker ruled in favor of two tech
organizations (NetChoice and the CCIA) representing social media
organizations like Meta, Snap and X, saying that the state's bill HB3 signed
into law in March this year is "likely unconstitutional."

The law requires parent or guardian consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to make
an account or use a pre-existing account on a social media platform, while
children under 14 are banned altogether. Platforms must abide by requests to
delete these accounts within five business days and each violation could
result in a $10,000 fine. That increases to $50,000 per instance if it is
ruled that the company participated in a ΓÇ£knowing or recklessΓÇ¥ violation
of the law.

"Floridians have the right to access lawful speech without the government
controlling what they say, share or see online,ΓÇ¥ said NetChoice Director of
Litigation, Chris Marchese.

The state of Florida tried to bypass normal first amendment free speech
protections by employing the "narrowly tailored" rules, saying the law is
designed to protect children from five addictive features of social media:
push notifications, auto-play videos, live streaming, infinite scrolling and
personal metrics. However, the judge ruled that the application is too broad
in ways that have been shot down before by the Supreme Court.

"As applied to Plaintiffs' members alone, the law likely bans all youth under
14 from holding accounts on, at a minimum, four websites that provide forums
for all manner of protected speech: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and
Snapchat," Judge Walker wrote. "It also bans 14- and 15-year-olds from
holding accounts on those four websites absent a parent's affirmative
consent, a requirement that the Supreme Court has clearly explained the First
Amendment does not countenance."

Children could also be banned from social media even if the platforms created
youth accounts without any of the five addictive features ΓÇö as long as they
were available for adults. The judge also called out the law's specificities
about the ability of a child to access a platform based on how much time all
children spend on the app.

The ruling does leave one provision in place. Social media companies are
still required to "terminate any account held by a youth under 16 in the
state upon the request of a parent or guardian," as required by the bill.

Yahoo, the parent company of Engadget, is a member of NetChoice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/social-media/florida...
temporarily-blocked-by-a-federal-judge-123004847.html?src=rss

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