Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday raised legal concerns about the “breadth” of a bill that seeks to prevent children under age 16 from having social-media accounts.
The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the bill (HB 1), a priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast.
Also, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, expressed support Thursday for the bill. But DeSantis, during an appearance in Kissimmee about an unrelated issue, pointed to concerns about the legality of the bill.
“I am sympathetic, as a parent, to what is going on with our youth,” DeSantis said. “But I also understand that to just say that someone who is 15 just cannot have it no matter what, even if the parent consents, that may create some legal issues.”
DeSantis said the bill “likely is going to evolve” in the Legislature. “We’ll see if we get a product that is going to be good, but I am concerned about the breadth of it,” he said.
Supporters of the bill say social media harms the mental health of children and can be used by sexual predators to communicate with minors.
But opponents have argued, in part, that the bill would violate First Amendment rights.
“Social media has been a net negative for our youth, without question,” DeSantis, an attorney, said. “Having said that, there have been other states that have tried to do similar things that have met resistance in the courts.” Renner, also an attorney, has disputed that the bill would violate First Amendment rights.
The bill would prevent minors under 16 from creating social-media accounts and would require social-media platforms to terminate existing accounts that are “reasonably known” by the platforms to be held by children younger than 16.
It also would allow parents to request that minors’ accounts be terminated.
The bill would require platforms to use independent organizations to conduct age verifications when new accounts are created and would require denial of accounts for people who do not verify their ages. The organizations would be required to delete the data after ages are verified.