Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has proposed the Safe Screens Act, a bill that would set new rules for social media and AI chatbots used by young people. The proposal pairs age checks with restrictions on how platforms and chatbot operators serve minors.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
Biometric Update reports that the proposal would require app stores and similar marketplaces to determine a user’s age, link minors to a parent’s account and obtain parental consent before a minor downloads or buys an app from a covered platform.
For users aged 14 to 17, the bill would require a quiet mode from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and during school hours on school days. Like, comment and reaction counts would be hidden by default; autoplay and infinite scroll would also be off by default. The proposal sets time limits of two hours a day and 60 hours a month.
The AI provisions would require chatbot operators and platforms to determine account holders’ ages. Chatbots could not simulate companionship, encourage harm, generate sexual content or claim to be human. The proposal also restricts encouragement of self-harm, eating disorders, illegal activity or isolation from appropriate adults. These are proposed rules, not requirements in force.
Why it matters
The bill would reach beyond social-media feeds into app-store age checks and conversational AI. For families, that could mean new consent steps and limits on how young people use covered services. For technology companies, it would mean designing around age-based restrictions, not simply adding a reminder after an account is made.
Our read
There is real substance here, especially in the attempt to set rules for chatbots as well as social platforms. But a bill is not a safeguard until its scope, enforcement and effect are clear. The proposal’s age checks also raise a practical question: how can platforms establish age without collecting more personal information than they need?
What to watch
- Whether the proposal advances in Florida’s legislature.
- How the bill defines covered platforms and chatbot services.
- What privacy-protective age checks would mean in practice.
- Whether the rules face legal challenges or change during debate.
Discussion spark: Should governments set specific limits on minors’ use of social media and AI chatbots, even if age checks require platforms to collect more information about their users?
Sources and evidence
- Source update (27 October 2026, 19:55 UTC)
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