Florida prohibits children from using social networks, even if their legal guardians consent. The US state also requires age verification for “harmful” websites. These should only be seen by people aged 18 and over. The corresponding law has a lengthy title and is known as HB 3. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it on Monday.
Advertisement
DeSantis withheld his approval of an earlier legislative resolution. The version at the time contained a ban on social networks even for young people up to the age of 16. Now the ban only extends until the child's 14th birthday; However, young people aged 14 and 15 need the consent of their legal guardians to set up an account on social networks. For children, even the express permission of their legal guardians has no effect.
This is accompanied by an obligation to delete. Operators must delete any accounts that they treat or classify as if the user is likely to be under 14 years old. Those wrongly affected have 90 days to file an appeal – either because they are older or do not live in Florida. In addition, the operator must delete the account and data upon request from its users up to the age of 16 or their legal guardians.
What is social media?
The definition of the central term “social media platform” is complex. It must meet four conditions to be covered by the law: first, it must allow users to upload content and view other users' content or activities; secondly, at least a tenth of users under the age of 16 must use the service for at least two hours per day of use on average; Thirdly, there must be algorithms that evaluate user data in order to select content – for example, the typical Mastodon service is not covered because there is no algorithm selecting content, but content from other users is shown anti-chronologically, which the user has determined himself.
Fourthly, there must be at least one of the following offers that are classified by the law as addictive: infinite scrolling, push notifications, the display of statistics about access, likes or shares, automatically starting videos or live streams from users or advertisers. In any case, e-mail and messaging services that do not provide for publication to undetermined third parties are exempt from the law.
Obligation to provide ID for lustful people
The second part of the new law provides for an ID requirement for online offers that are more than a third “harmful” to minors. Florida residents should only have access if they are 18 years old or older. News offers are excluded.
Here too the definition proves to be intricate. The law classifies as “harmful” content that does not have “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors” and engages in sexual conduct in a “patently repugnant” manner, and which an “average person using contemporary community standards.” ” would classify as “appealing to prurient interests”.
In any case, pornographic offers are covered, but other online services could also get caught in the net. The age check may be carried out by the provider itself or a third party. The law comes into force at the turn of the year.
(ds)