JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Children under 14 will soon be banned from opening social media accounts in Florida.
On Monday in Jacksonville, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 3 into law. He said the bill will protect children from dangers online.
"With things like social media and all of this, you can have a kid in the house safe seemingly and then you have predators that can get right in there," DeSantis said.
But, could the law harm young athletes?
"Sometimes you get those kids who go way, way ahead of their grade, you get kids 12 and 13 that are far beyond that and child prodigies," Fletcher High School Football Coach Ciatrick Fason said.
Fason, a prodigy himself, got his first offer from Florida State University in 1998 while heading into his ninth-grade year. He thinks he would have gotten offers earlier if he had social media. Fason said social media is crucial for kids to get noticed and for coaches to scout as many players as possible.
“You got to have great film, especially these days, you got to have it posted so people can see it," Fason told First Coast News. "Coaches don’t have the time to be everywhere."
Fason says parents could run accounts for their children, but added that it's important for parents to stay current and up-to-date with posting.
“You got to hope that their parents do stay ahead of the curve and make those social media pages for him," Fason said.
Social media is an engine for recruiting and name, image, and likeness (NIL). The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) has a proposal to bring NIL to high school sports in Florida; it would allow athletes to profit on their name, image, and likeness.
Fason thinks NIL's are a good thing, but with this new social media law, it puts more responsibility on the parents to show how their kid is different.
“Parents that are supporting their kids and like I say, staying on top of their social media, seeing what’s going on, making sure that isn’t no baggage on there," Fason said.
House Bill 3 allows 14 and 15-year-olds to open accounts with permission from parent(s). Florida House Speaker Paul Renner created the bill and says federal law already requires social media companies to verify ages of users.
Renner says if companies fail to verify ages of kids who are not allowed to open accounts, the state can go after the platform for $50,000 per violation.
The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2025.