Social Media

A 2024 Florida law aimed at keeping children off of social-media platforms came under scrutiny Friday, as lawyers for the state told a federal judge the measure is addressing a “mental-health crisis” and attorneys for industry groups argued the restrictions violate First Amendment rights.The law, in part, seeks to prevent children under age 16 from opening social-media accounts on certain platforms — though it would allow parents to give consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts. Children under 14 would be prohibited from having accounts.

A social media showdown is unfolding in Florida, as a federal judge in Tallahassee considers whether to block a new Florida law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans social media for young teens.U.S. District Judge Mark Walker is expected to hear oral arguments Friday in his courtroom from lawyers representing technology companies and the state's attorney general. The sides are battling over a request for a preliminary injunction that would further block the new law from taking effect. It wasn't clear when he might rule.

TikTok said Sunday it was restoring service to users in the United States after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a federal ban that President-elect Donald Trump said he would try to pause by executive order on his first day in office.Trump said he planned to issue the order to give TikTok’s China-based parent company more time to find an approved buyer before the popular video-sharing platform is subject to a permanent U.S.ban. He announced the move on his Truth Social account as millions of U.S. TikTok users awoke to discover they could no longer access the TikTok app or platform.

After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month, Florida and tech-industry groups could be poised to resume a legal battle about a 2021 state law aimed at placing restrictions on social-media platforms.Attorneys for the groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which challenged the constitutionality of the law, have filed a motion at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that new briefs should be filed in light of the Supreme Court decision.

Facing potential First Amendment challenges, Florida has proposed details about how it will carry out a new law aimed at keeping children off social-media platforms and blocking minors from accessing online pornography.Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office on Tuesday published three proposed rules that include addressing one of the most closely watched issues in the law: age verification.

Tim Love spent more than four decades in the world of global advertising. Since retiring in 2013, he has focused much of his attention on the way the online world operates today, and how it has been used to polarize us, and has greatly impacted mental health, particularly among young people. Love is author “Discovering Truth: How to Navigate Between Fact & Fiction in an Overwhelming Social Media World” and he’s host of a podcast called Tim Love's Discovering Truth where he interviews major players in the online and corporate world about the nature of truth and the trouble we find ourselves in.

With the state preparing for a legal challenge from the tech industry, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a high-profile bill aimed at keeping children off social-media platforms.Lawmakers this month overwhelmingly passed the bill (HB 3), which House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, made a priority of the annual legislative session.

Two free sessions offered next week can help clarify how social media might be affecting your child.

Facebook, Messenger and Instagram were apparently offline Tuesday morning in a massive social media outage.News media around the world were reporting the outage with stories of users accounts suddenly going offline and attempts to reconnect thwarted.The service returned shortly after noon.

The Senate voted 30-5 to approve the plan (HB 3), three days after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed an earlier version (HB 1). DeSantis and House Speaker Paul Renner, who has made a priority of the social-media issue, negotiated the revamped plan.Renner, R-Palm Coast, and other supporters of restrictions contend that social media harms children’s mental health and can lead to sexual predators communicating with minors. The bill seeks to prevent children under age 16 from opening social-media accounts — though a key change in the revised version would allow parents to give consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts.