TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CN) - A federal judge temporarily halted the implementation of a Florida law restricting minors' access to certain social media platforms on Tuesday, ruling the legislation is likely unconstitutional.

The dispute stems from a bill signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis last March that bans social media accounts for children under 14 and requires parental permission for those 14 to 15 years old.

In his 58-page order, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote that social media websites "provide the most powerful mechanisms available to private citizens to make his or her voice heard."

"This is perhaps especially true for youth, for whom the available forums for speech are generally more limited than for adults, who tend to have freer rein to decide for themselves where to go and how to spend their time," Walker said. "And youth have First Amendment rights."

The Florida Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Florida House Bill 3 was one of the biggest priorities of the 2024 legislative session and received support from Republicans and Democrats alike, worried about the addictive nature of social media.

The law does not mention specific platforms but provides four criteria to determine if the regulations apply, including uploading capabilities, algorithms that analyze user data, proof that at least 10% of users are minors using the platform more than two hours a day and having at least one "addictive feature."

Those criteria applied to the most popular social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook and YouTube, all represented by industry groups NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

In October, those organizations filed a lawsuit against Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, alleging violations of the First Amendment, contending parents should have the freedom to restrict their children's internet use. The groups, whose members include Facebook and Google, also expressed dismay at the broad language of the bill that disregards privacy rights.

In March, Walker threw out the case, ruling that the groups did not have standing to file the lawsuit, but allowed them to re-file. In the interim, the attorney general targeted Snapchat with a lawsuit of its own in state court, claiming the social media company is violating HB 3.

In his ruling, Walker did not dispute the state had a "legitimate interest in regulating the use of features that are designed and operated to undermine a person's ability to exercise their will in determining the amount of time that they choose to spend engaging with an activity, whether that activity involves speech or not - particularly when that person is a minor with heightened susceptibility to such features."

But, the judge added, the law is an "extraordinarily blunt instrument for furthering it."

To that end, Walker's preliminary injunction did leave one provision of the law to stand for now that requires social media platforms to cancel any accounts held by a minor under 16 years old if requested by a parent.

"In this context, that means that parents are best positioned to make the appropriately individualized determinations about whether or when their children should use social media platforms, and if so, which platforms and under what conditions," he said.

Tuesday's ruling follows similar decisions by federal courts across the country, from Georgia to California.

Source: Courthouse News Service