A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed a lower court injunction, allowing Florida to enforce a law barring children under 14 from having social media accounts. The law, known as HB 3, requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts. The ruling is a significant development in legal battles between states and tech companies over online child safety.
Tech industry trade groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association sued to block the law. Their members include Meta, Snap and Google. The groups argued that the law violates the First Amendment by restricting access to lawful speech.
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law is likely constitutional because it targets content-neutral features such as infinite scrolling and like counts, rather than the substance of speech. The panel also found that Florida has a compelling interest in protecting children from social media addiction.