Ron DeSantis signs Florida social media ban for children into law

The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has signed a law that has given his state one of the US’s most restrictive social media bans for minors, though it must still withstand expected legal challenges.

Once it takes effect, the bill signed on Monday bans social media accounts for children under 14 and require parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds. It was slightly watered down from a proposal DeSantis vetoed earlier in March, a week before the annual legislative session ended.

The new law was the top legislative priority for Republican state house speaker, Paul Renner. It takes effect on 1 January.

“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 a ceremony for the bill signing held at a Jacksonville school.

The bill DeSantis vetoed would have banned minors under 16 from popular social media platforms regardless of parental consent. But before the veto, he worked out compromise language with Renner to alleviate the governor’s concerns, and the legislature sent DeSantis a second bill.

Several states have considered similar legislation. In Arkansas, a federal judge in August blocked enforcement of a law that required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts.

Supporters in Florida hope the bill will withstand legal challenges because it would ban social media formats based on addictive features such as notification alerts and autoplay videos, rather than on their content.

Renner said he expects social media companies to “sue the second after this is signed”.

“But you know what? We’re going to beat them,” Renner remarked.