In March 2024, Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed the "Online Protections for Minors" act, a bill that restricts access to social media platforms for children under the age of 16 and prohibits children under the age of 14 from opening new social media accounts.
"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," he said when putting the final stamp on the state law. "You could be doing everything right, but they know how to get and manipulate these different platforms, and so, it's created huge problems."
Talking about this last week on Fox News, Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) celebrated the state's victory after two years of litigation.
"There's fines of $50,000 per violation of teenagers, kids' accounts that shouldn't be there," he relayed. "Damages could be up in the billions."
He thinks companies like TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, and Roblox know kids are suffering on their applications, and he encouraged the companies to work together with the state to "protect our kids at all costs."
If they do not comply, Uthmeier said that Florida will bring civil action in state court.
"We'll be seeking heavy damages as well as injunctive relief," he declared. "At the end of the day, we want the platforms adjusted."
He confirmed Meta has already announced it plans to comply with the law.
"I commend them," the attorney general said. "I think they realize there are higher suicide rates, there are mental health issues, self-harm, not to mention all the child predators that we see utilizing some of these applications to get to kids."
Uthmeier also pointed out that Florida's law was passed before Australia made headlines for prohibiting children under 16 from holding social media accounts.
When Fox & Friends host Kayleigh McEnany pointed out that teens are still finding a way on Facebook and Instagram, Uthmeier said companies have the capability – through imagery, videos, and text – of identifying and removing people who should not be on the sites.
"They can very quickly tell if somebody's 12 or 13," he asserted.
With parental consent, young teens can still use the platforms. Still, Uthmeier expects hundreds of thousands of kids' Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads accounts will be suspended in early May.
