Florida governor signs bill banning minors from social media

Ron DeSantis, governor of the US state of Florida, has signed a bill restricting minors from social media.

The bill prohibits children under the age of 14 from becoming social media account holders, and allows 14 and 15-year-olds to become account holders with parental consent.

“Social media harms children in a variety of ways,” DeSantis said in a statement on Monday after signing the bill.

“HB 3 gives parents a greater ability to protect their children. Thank you to Speaker Renner for delivering this landmark legislation.”

The law also protects state residents from remaining anonymous online.

In addition, the bill requires pornographic or sexually explicit websites to use age verification to prevent minors from access.

“The internet has become a dark alley for our children where predators target them and dangerous social media leads to higher rates of depression, self-harm, and even suicide,” Paul Renner, house speaker, said.

“I am proud of the work of all our bill sponsors, Representatives Tyler Sirois, Fiona McFarland, Michele Rayner, Chase Tramont, and Toby Overdorf for delivering a legislative framework that prioritizes keeping our children safe.

“Thanks to Governor DeSantis’ signature, Florida leads the way in protecting children online as states across the country fight to address these dangers.”

Earlier this month, the US house of representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok unless the app parts ways with ByteDance, its Chinese parent company.

Lawmakers had argued that the video-sharing app poses a national security threat.