{"id":428153,"date":"2026-10-15T02:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/428153\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T02:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T02:06:11","slug":"florida-wins-key-ruling-allowing-it-to-enforce-social-media-law-targeting-young-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/428153\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida wins key ruling allowing it to enforce social media law targeting young teens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The state of Florida won a key court decision Wednesday that allows it to enforce a ban on social media accounts for kids under 14 and other restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>The law was\u00a0one of the most restrictive\u00a0in the U.S. on\u00a0social media use by children\u00a0when Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/03\/25\/us-news\/ron-desantis-signs-law-restricting-social-media-for-people-under-16\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed it in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The law implicates the First Amendment, an appeals court said, but \u201clikely does so in a content-neutral manner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41339568\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/diverse-multiethnic-kids-students-using-145067551.jpg\" alt=\"Diverse multiethnic students use smartphones in a classroom.\" class=\"wp-image-41339568\"\/>An appeals court ruled that Florida can enforce its law banning social media for kids under 14 and requiring parental consent for ages 14 and 15. insta_photos \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>It would likely survive a full legal challenge \u201cbecause it doesn\u2019t burden substantially more speech than necessary to advance the important interest in protecting minors from social media addiction,\u201d a panel from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/media.ca11.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/pub\/files\/202511881.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">a 3-0 opinion.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The law bans social media accounts for Florida children under 14 and requires parental consent for use by kids who are 14 or 15.<\/p>\n<p>Industry trade groups the Computer &amp; Communications Industry Association and NetChoice sued Florida, arguing that the law violated the free-speech rights of social media providers and users. <\/p>\n<p>A judge in 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/06\/04\/business\/federal-judge-halts-floridas-social-media-ban-for-kids\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said the law<\/a> likely was unconstitutional and granted an injunction.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41339565\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/governor-florida-ron-desantis-holds-144270507.jpg\" alt=\"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference regarding Hurricane Isaias.\" class=\"wp-image-41339565\"\/>Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the social media law in 2024. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>That injunction was put on hold while the appeals court heard the case. The lawsuit, with the injunction now overturned, will return to federal court in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n<p>The appeals court noted that the law covers social media platforms \u201cthat have been determined to induce heavy use by children, and applies only to platforms that use both algorithms and one of several addictive features.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An email seeking comment from the Florida attorney general\u2019s office was not immediately answered. NetChoice said it was disappointed with the decision.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are currently evaluating all of our options as we continue the fight to ensure Floridians\u2019 rights to free expression online are protected, and parents remain in the driver\u2019s seat when it comes to making decisions for their families,\u201d said Paul Taske, a lawyer at NetChoice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state of Florida won a key court decision Wednesday that allows it to enforce a ban on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,128,412,6097,4278],"class_list":["post-428153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-legislation","tag-ron-desantis","tag-social-media","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}