Photo by Ava Traill.
Florida’s social media bill, House Bill 1, was vetoed by Governor Ron DeSantis and is now being presented with corrections. The reworked bill would ban 13-year-olds from any use of social media platforms, require parental consent for 14 and 15-year-olds, and prohibit anyone under 18 from accessing adult sites.
House Bill 1 was a plan to ban social media accounts from anyone 16 and under. This would require ID identification in order to create an account. Any platform that did not meet the identification requirement would have been fined $50,000 each time.
Governor Ron DeSantis expectedly vetoed the bill after making statements about parents’ rights.
“I have vetoed HB 1 because the Legislature is about to produce a different, superior bill,” DeSantis posted on X on March 1. “Protecting children from harms associated with social media is important, as is supporting parents’ rights and maintaining the ability of adults to engage in anonymous speech.”
The new bill, House Bill 3, would allow parental consent for those older than 13 but not for those younger, still leaving limitations for parents.
“I don’t really want my parental freedoms taken away in that department,” Daytona State College Political Science Professor Sally Hansen says.
Hansen is a mother of two children, an 8 and 10-year-old. She allows both to have social media accounts and they are both managed by her on her own devices. The only viewers able to access their accounts are family because it is set to private.
“At the same time, I understand where the government is coming from in wanting to limit children’s access to social media. So I definitely see both sides to it,” Hansen says.
The bill could be comparable to the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association case in 2011. The Supreme Court ruled that video games were a protected speech under the First Amendment and the law to ban video games containing violent content for minors was decided unconstitutional.
“Sometimes industries choose to regulate themselves, such as the movie rating system and the video game rating system, in response to these types of actions, making it easier to regulate minor access,” DSC Political Science Professor Pearl Galano says. “We may see something like that come out of this legislative action that is occurring across states, but this is just speculation on my part.”
Social media has been a constant topic of conversation about whether it is healthy for children or even for adults. Now, with sites such as TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, etc., it is understood that teens are the most active on these apps.
Recently, it has become apparent that there has been a development in social media impact for those in Generation Z and especially throughout Generation Alpha. Children are more aware of body image as well as how many likes they should be getting due to the results of other people’s posts.
One problematic aspect is access to social media accounts give access to seeing what influencers are promoting, wearing, doing, and supporting. Children tend to start following the same trends they see even with an age gap between them and the influencers.
“As someone who has a younger sister as part of that generation, I fear they will be completely lost in the screens,” 15-year-old dual enrolled student, Nitaya Manasvigangkul says. “I also believe that the younger generation will grow up with worse and more impossible body standards.”
TikTok users have addressed the upcoming generation’s use of makeup, labeling them as the “Sephora Kids.” This came about when people started to see an influx of kids shopping at the beauty store, Sephora. Some people who have taken note to the change in stores have started conversations and complaints on the Sephora page.
Now that these discussions are being opened up, it is expected that there will be more challenges that will cause questioning in the state on whether the rules should change. This social media ban in Florida could be presented in other states as well.
The current bill will be given to DeSantis in attempt for him to approve the modifications.