Florida after court injunction to restrict teens from accessing Meta's Facebook, Instagram

Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier has asked a state court on Wednesday to order Meta to remove all children under 14 from Facebook and Instagram and switch off all features the state claims keep teenagers scrolling.

The request, filed in Pasco County Circuit Court, would hand Florida minors and their parents sweeping new limits on the apps’ behaviors, and comes while the rest of the country has settled similar claims against the tech company.

The motion for a temporary injunction is one piece of a larger lawsuit Florida is pressing against Meta Platforms Inc. and Instagram LLC under the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Florida accuses the tech giant of calling its apps safe for young users while internal and outside research have pointed to anxiety, depression, self-harm, sleep loss, eating disorders, and unwanted sexual advances as resulting from the use of these apps.

The state court filing cites internal chat logs from workers at Meta, where these staff compared the apps to a narcotic. In one of the messages, an employee wrote, “IG is a drug,” while another described the company as “basically pushers.”

What the order would affect

The proposed terms would disable infinite scrolling and autoplay by default, while like and comment counts would remain hidden unless a parent chooses to turn them on. It would also include a default quiet mode that blocks access from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. every day, with another restriction from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays during the school year.

The state also wants tighter limits on time spent on the apps, including a two-hour daily cap, mandatory breaks after long sessions, and a combined limit of 60 hours per month.

Florida wants Meta to also work harder at preventing unrelated and random adults from messaging teens, put more in place to notify parents the first time an adult contacts their child, and strengthen its response to sextortion reports.

Florida is seeking stronger verification measures for age checks, with the motion stating that if Meta cannot implement these measures within 30 days of a court order, the company should be barred completely from serving users under 14 in the state until it does.

Why Florida walked away from a national deal

On August 26, a group of states and territories reached a deal with Meta that bundled a cash payment with youth-safety changes. Florida’s Voice stated that the agreement was at $11.66 billion spread over a decade across 51 states and territories.

Uthmeier argued that the payout was insignificant for a tech company valued at $1.86 trillion, according to Florida’s motion, with the annual amount to be paid in the agreement equal to about two days of Meta’s revenue.

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