Attorney General James Uthmeier on Thursday unveiled a slate of legislative proposals aimed at protecting Florida children online across social media platforms.
The proposed Safe Screens Act includes a nightly “quiet mode” shutting down minors’ social media accounts from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., addictive features turned off by default, and a cap of two hours a day and 60 hours a month. The proposals would also extend to require app store age verification and parental consent so that minors cannot download age-restricted apps without explicit permission from their parents.
Speaking at Polk State College alongside Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, state lawmakers and parents, Uthmeier said the threat now spans beyond just social media, and changes need to also be made to gaming platforms and AI chatbots.
“Today we’re here to talk about the dangers that face our kids on social media, gaming apps, Big Tech chatrooms,” Uthmeier said. “This is a very big danger.”
Uthmeier said his office has been involved in more than 2,100 child predator arrests over the last year and a half, with over half of those cases originating online. He described one recent arrest of a 60-year-old man who had been communicating with more than 300 children through a chat app.
Uthmeier recently opted not to join the recent multistate settlement with Meta that a majority of states agreed to, and pledged Florida would continue its own lawsuit against Meta.
On Thursday, however, AG Uthmeier made clear that his plans will impact all social media platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. He also singled out Roblox, Discord, and TikTok for allowing banned adults to return to their platforms after being removed for predatory behavior.
The centerpiece of his proposal, Uthmeier said, is extending age verification to app stores so parents have control over what their kids can download before it becomes potentially harmful.
“The app stores, like the Apple App Store, Google Play, and other marketplaces. They also will be bound by law to ensure proper age verification,” he said. “Kids cannot access apps unless they get permission, explicit permission from their parents. These things are going to save lives.”
Florida would join a growing list of states that have held app stores accountable for their role as a major chokepoint of child endangerment. Utah, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama have all signed the App Store Accountability Act into law. Texas’s law is currently in effect after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block it in July, and Alabama’s takes effect January 1, 2027.
Uthmeier has already backed holding app stores accountable in court. In June, he led a bipartisan coalition of 27 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to keep the Texas law in effect. The brief argued that the law regulates commercial transactions rather than speech and is needed given gaps in voluntary safeguards. “Texas is fighting for the rights of parents to direct the upbringing of their kids,” Uthmeier told POLITICO at the time.
The proposals come days after the 11th Circuit upheld HB 3, Florida’s law barring social media accounts for children under 14 and requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds. “These companies are on notice,” Uthmeier said.
Meta remains the only major platform to publicly commit to complying with HB 3, announcing in April that it would begin removing accounts belonging to Florida users under 14. Other companies covered by the law have not appeared to follow suit, causing Uthmeier to take both Snapchat and TikTok to court for alleged violations of the law.
Uthmeier’s push comes as pressure mounts on the rest of the industry to match the protections Meta agreed to. A coalition of over 90 child safety advocates and organizations, led by the American Principles Project, sent a letter urging TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat to voluntarily adopt the same safeguards.
Uthmeier said tech companies should be partners rather than adversaries in protecting children.
“These Big Tech companies are making trillions of dollars, more money than we’ve ever imagined, and our kids are suffering, and they should be here banging on our door … begging us, let’s work together,” he said. “They’re fighting us in court to have 12-year-olds addicted to their applications.”
The attorney general said his office will publish the full proposals and work with the Legislature in the coming session. In the meantime, Uthmeier said Florida would continue pressing its cases against the industry.
“Nobody has done more to rein in social media and big tech and protect kids in our state. But we’re not going to stop there,” Uthmeier said. “In the legal battlefield, we’ve brought civil actions against almost everybody out there, from Meta to TikTok to Snapchat to Roblox to Discord to Open AI, and we are just getting started.”