DeSantis Signs One Of The Country's Strictest Bans On Kids' Social Media Use

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ® on Monday signed one of the country’s strictest laws cracking down on minors’ access to social media, setting up a likely First Amendment challenge from the companies that host those platforms.

The new law will take effect Jan. 1 of next year and bans social media accounts for all children under 14 and requires that 15- and 16-year-olds get parental consent to have accounts. Social media platforms will be required to terminate accounts in violation of the law.

At a signing ceremony in Jacksonville, DeSantis said that social media has given predatory adults a tool to undermine parents’ efforts to protect their kids.

“Unfortunately, we’ve got predators who prey on young kids. It used to be, ‘Well, if they’re out somewhere, maybe they’re not being supervised, maybe some predator can strike.’ Now, with things like social media and all this, you can have a kid in the house safe, seemingly, and then you have predators that can get right in there, into your own home,” DeSantis said. “You could be doing everything right, but they know how to get and manipulate these different platforms.”

The proposal was brought forth by Florida Republican Speaker Paul Renner, who said the legislation was his top priority this session.

“A child in their brain development doesn’t have the ability to know that they’re being sucked into these addictive technologies and to see the harm and step away from it, and because of that, we have to step in for them,” Renner said at the ceremony.

A 2022 review of dozens of studies found that children who use social media for several hours a day face an increased risk of cyberbullying and online grooming, and that unrestricted use of the platforms may expose children to unwanted