USA: Florida Bans Social Media for Minors Under 17

The state of Florida, led by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, has made a major decision aimed at controlling the influence of social media on the younger generation. The state legislature has approved a bill that would ban children and young adults under 17 years of age from accessing and using social media platforms. The document was approved by 106 votes, with only 13 lawmakers voting against the revolutionary measure.

The bill would require all social media sites to “delete accounts associated with youth under 17 years of age.” In addition, social networks will have to use sophisticated control systems to verify the real identity of users and deny access to minors under the age set by the new law. Therefore, any information about these specific accounts should be permanently deleted. If they are not, parents of minors “will be able to intervene in actions against social media owners who do not comply with the new rules.”

The debate over young people’s access to various social media sites has been going on in the US and around the world for a long time. In contrast, billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta, which operates various social networks, from Facebook to Instagram to the WhatsApp messenger, has proposed an alternative solution: in order to access the platforms, children “will have to ask their parents to register on a social network.”