'Under 16 SNS Ban Law' Passed by Florida State Legislature in the US

Effective After Governor's Signature

The Florida state legislature in the United States has passed a bill prohibiting minors under the age of 16 from owning social networking service (SNS) accounts.

According to CNN on the 27th (local time), the Florida House and Senate each passed the "Minor Online Protection Act" on the same day and sent it to Governor Ron DeSantis. If Governor DeSantis does not exercise his veto power and signs it, the law will take effect.

The law requires SNS platforms to verify users' ages, prohibit the creation of new accounts by minors under 16, and close existing accounts that appear to belong to users under 16.

Major SNS platforms such as TikTok and Facebook are expected to be subject to this law. The applicable SNS platforms are those where users can upload content and where at least 10% of daily active users (DAU) under 16 use the platform for more than two hours a day. Platforms that analyze data through algorithms, send push notifications, continuously display content in an infinite scroll format, or automatically play videos are also included.

Governor DeSantis said at a press conference on the 22nd, "It is harmful for people to spend 5 to 6 hours a day on these SNS platforms, and parents can supervise their children to use them a little less." He added, "I am a critic of SNS, but this issue should be viewed from the parents' perspective," and "Parents who want their children to use SNS should have the right to do so."

Calls for stronger SNS regulation are growing in the United States. Earlier, on the 31st of last month, during a U.S. Senate hearing, lawmakers criticized major SNS CEOs including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Snap's Evan Spiegel, TikTok's Shou Zi Chew, and X (formerly Twitter)'s Linda Yaccarino, accusing them of neglecting issues such as sexual exploitation and bullying of minors.

CEO Zuckerberg bowed to the families of victims, saying "It is terrible" and "I am sorry for everything you have gone through" regarding cases where minors met scammers on Instagram, became victims of sexual exploitation, and took extreme measures.