• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 28, 2024

Two tech industry groups are suing to invalidate a Florida law prohibiting social-media platforms from allowing anyone under 14 to create or maintain accounts, and requiring platforms to obtain parental consent before allowing 14- or 15-year-olds to create or maintain accounts.

In a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, the organizations NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association say the law (House Bill 3) violates the First Amendment in several ways -- including by preventing minors from accessing lawful speech.

“By restricting the ability of minors (and adults, who must now prove their age) to access these websites, Florida has 'with one broad stroke' restricted -- and, for those under 14, prohibited -- access to valuable sources for speaking and listening, learning about current events, 'and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge,'” the groups wrote, quoting from a 2017 Supreme Court decision invalidating a North Carolina law that would have restricted social media use by convicted sex offenders.

Unless blocked in court, the Florida law will take effect in January.

The measure, which was enacted in March, only applies to social platforms with certain engagement metrics, and with supposedly “addictive” characteristics. Specifically, the statute applies to a platform if at least 10% of users under 16 spend at least two hours per day on average at that platform; also, the law only covers platforms that employ an allegedly addictive quality, such as displaying “like” counts, or automatically playing videos.

The tech industry groups say in their petition that these factors show the law appears designed “to restrict access to websites that minors especially enjoy using.”

“Whether a service is covered turns in part on how long minors spend on it and whether it employs tools designed to bring to their attention content they might like,” the groups write. “But by that metric, the state could restrict access to the most popular segments of nearly any medium for constitutionally protected speech, be it enticing video games, page-turning novels, or binge-worthy TV shows.”

The groups note in their complaint that the Supreme Court in 2011 struck down a California law that would have banned the sale of violent video games to minors, without parental consent.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion that while the government has the power to protect children, states don't have a “free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."

Florida isn't the only state to attempt to restrict social media use by minors.

New York, Maryland, Arkansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Utah, Texas and California are among other states that have passed statutes that either restrict teens' use of social media, or regulate companies' ability to serve content to teens.

Many of those laws have faced court challenges, and so far judges have blocked all or parts of the measures in Arkansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Utah, Texas and California.