The Florida House of Representatives recently approved HB1 with an overwhelming majority, 106-13. HB1 is a bill aimed at restricting access for children 16-years-old and younger from social media platforms. With bipartisan support, the bill is now headed to the Florida state Senate for consideration. HB1 is a potential law that is poised to change the future of social media for young people in that state.
“We must address the harmful effects social media platforms have on the development and well-being of our kids,” Florida House Speaker Paul Renner said in response to the vote. “Florida has a compelling state interest and duty to protect our children, their mental health, and their childhood.”
HB1 is a priority for the Republican speaker. Additional supporters of the bill also state that it is necessary to enact these strict measures to protect minors “from the negative impacts of social media … and also from being victims of cyberbullying and sexual traffickers.”
However, not all people agree with Renner and his supporters. Many parents in the state are asking shouldn’t it be up to the them and not the government to make decisions for their children.
“I feel like up to the decision of the parents. I have no idea how they are going to control something like that because kids can always get on and just lie about their birthday anyway, so I have no idea how something like that could be controlled,” Carcagente said in an interview with clickorlando.com.
Carcagente is correct. How do these lawmakers plan on policing social media platforms to ensure that no laws are being broken if HB1 does in fact become law?
Well, according to US News, the measure would require social media platforms to terminate the accounts of anyone under the age of 17. These platforms would also have to use a third-party verification system to screen out under aged children. Additionally, accounts of those 17 and under would have to be permanently deleted and the personal information collected from the terminated accounts would also have to be deleted. Failure to do so could open the platforms up to civil suits being brought against them by parents and fines to upwards of $50,000 per violation.
Although the measure does not specifically identify any of the social media platforms, Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook is speaking out against the legislation. Meta is saying that the bill will limit parental discretion and raise data privacy concerns.
“HB 1 would require each new social media user, from a 13-year-old in Miami to a 73-year-old from Boca Raton, to provide possibly sensitive identifying information, such as a driver’s license or birth certificate to a third-party organization to verify their age,” Meta’s Caulder Childs told the House’s Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Jan. 17.
Several other states have already adopted legislation regulating access to social media by minors. Those states include: Utah, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Texas.