Florida’s attorney general is proposing youth-safety restrictions that reach into the design of social platforms and AI chatbots.
Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the proposed Safe Screens Act on October 22. The package would introduce app-store age checks and parental controls, restrict teen account features and prohibit specified chatbot interactions with minors. It is a legislative proposal, not an enacted requirement. News 6: proposed Safe Screens Act.
Reported measures include two-hour daily social-media limits, disabling autoplay and infinite scroll by default, and restrictions on chatbots simulating companionship or presenting themselves as human to minors. Florida Politics: proposed measures.
A proposal, not an enacted law
The proposal illustrates a regulatory approach focused on how a product encourages interaction, alongside what users can see or generate.
For technology counsel, those are different compliance questions. A content policy can prohibit certain material while leaving engagement features untouched. A design rule may require changes to defaults, account architecture and parental permissions.
Age assurance creates its own implementation questions. A service needs to determine who falls within the protected category while considering the information collected to make that determination.
Product design and age assurance
If legislation is introduced, its definitions will matter. Terms such as companionship, emotional engagement and parental approval need sufficient clarity to guide product decisions and enforcement.
The proposal may also prompt disputes about speech, privacy and the relationship between state and federal authority. Those issues should be assessed against an introduced text rather than assumed from the announcement.
For Canadian companies serving Florida users, the immediate task is monitoring the proposal’s progress and identifying which products or features could fall within its scope.
Monitor the legislative text
There is no new compliance deadline on the basis of this announcement alone.
The proposal asks product teams to consider safety in the interaction design, not only in the content policy.
Related coverage: Meta’s US$25 Billion New Mexico Penalty Puts Privacy Promises Under Pressure.
Sources: News 6: proposed Safe Screens Act · Florida Politics: proposed measures .