191
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs bill that bans children under 14 from having social media accounts (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
40 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that will prohibit children younger than 14 from joining social media in the state. Those who are 14 or 15 will need a parent’s consent before they join a platform. 

The bill, HB3, also directs social media companies to delete the existing accounts of those who are under 14. Companies that fail to do so could be sued on behalf of the child who creates an account on the platform. The minor could be awarded up to $10,000 in damages, according to the bill. Companies found to be in violation of the law would also be liable for up to $50,000 per violation, as well as attorney’s fees and court costs.

“Ultimately, [we’re] trying to help parents navigate this very difficult terrain that we have now with raising kids, and so I appreciate the work that’s been put in,” DeSantis said in remarks during the bill-signing ceremony.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] tal@lemmy.today 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I wonder what qualifies as 'social media'. Is a Steam account 'social media'? Its social features tick most of the boxes.

I linked to the text in a top-level comment.

"Social media platform" means an online forum, website, or application that satisfies each of the following criteria:

  1. Allows users to upload content or view the content or activity of other users;

  2. Ten percent or more of the daily active users who are younger than 16 years of age spend on average 2 hours per day or longer on the online forum, website, or application on the days when using the online forum, website, or application during the previous 12 months or, if the online forum, website, or application did not exist during the previous 12 months, during the previous month;

  3. Employs algorithms that analyze user data or information on users to select content for users; and

  4. Has any of the following addictive features:

a. Infinite scrolling, which means either:

(I) Continuously loading content, or content that loads as the user scrolls down the page without the need to open a separate page; or

(II) Seamless content, or the use of pages with no visible or apparent end or page breaks.

b. Push notifications or alerts sent by the online forum, website, or application to inform a user about specific activities or events related to the user's account.

c. Displays personal interactive metrics that indicate the number of times other users have clicked a button to indicate their reaction to content or have shared or reposted the content.

d. Auto-play video or video that begins to play without the user first clicking on the video or on a play button for that video.

e. Live-streaming or a function that allows a user or advertiser to broadcast live video content in real-time.

The term does not include an online service, website, or application where the exclusive function is e-mail or direct messaging consisting of text, photographs, pictures, images, or videos shared only between the sender and the recipients, without displaying or posting publicly or to other users not specifically identified as the recipients by the sender.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I think that Criterion 2 is going to limit the practical impact of the law. The burden of the proof will be on the plaintiff, so they're going to have to prove what a percentage of the userbase under a certain age is doing, and I don't see as how even the social media company is going to know with great certainty what the age of its userbase is, much less a plaintiff.

[-] CubitOom@infosec.pub 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Does this mean that Lemmy is not social media because it's not ranking content with an algorithm?

I guess it depends on the definition of algorithm is as just sorting by newest is a type of algorithm.

[-] IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

So nearly everything. Got it.

this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
191 points (97.5% liked)

News

23360 readers
1867 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
rjc@lemmy.world
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
jeffw@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world