Starting the 2024 year, Florida lawmakers have already proposed a bill that would ban the usage of social media platforms for minors under the age of 16 in the state. Florida HB1 of 2024, filed on January 5th, seeks to heavily restrict the use of social media platforms for teens, like TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and more. The bill is slated to take effect on July 1, 2024, but has not been fully passed as of January 22nd.

Not much has officially come of the bill so far, but it was added to the Special Order Calendar to be reviewed on January 23rd.

This would ban the creation of social media accounts by anyone under the age of 16, and force those who have social media accounts to delete them. This would be a major letdown for people in this age range and would likely spark a considerable amount of backlash.

The bill is being supported by many in the Florida House of Representatives. While it still has not been passed, it seems as if the bill will pass fairly quickly in 2024.

Florida has been heavy on social media usage in recent years, as they banned the use of certain social media platforms in schools and other government regulated facilities. Governor DeSantis has shown support for this restriction in the state, and will likely continue to do so throughout his term. 

Even though these platforms are restricted to the ages of 13+ in most cases, the state still seeks to restrict them further for its citizens. Although this is hard to enforce, the bill proposes a thorough verification process that would confirm if the person making or running the account is over the age of 16. There are methods already in place for the 13+ regulations that the apps have, but they are hardly reliable.