Governor DeSantis Signs 13 Laws Telling Tech Companies Exactly How a Teenager May Use a Screen

SAUSALITO — Governor DeSantis signed a package of thirteen laws Thursday aimed at children's technology use, including one requiring social platforms to strip 'addictive' features such as infinite scroll from the accounts of anyone under sixteen or remove those users entirely, another imposing time limits and crisis-reporting duties on AI chatbots, and a temporary ban on children's toys with built-in chatbots.

DeSantis signed the bills at a children's museum, the traditional venue for laws that will be enforced against companies headquartered an hour away. The measures create new rights to sue and new state penalties, and require platforms to verify the ages of everyone, which is to say they demand identification from adults in order to protect children.

The Press's tech desk observes that a state government prescribing the design of private software, deciding which features are compulsive and which are merely popular, is 'nanny-state overreach' when the other party's governor does it and 'protecting kids' when yours does. Both parties have now signed nearly this exact law, in different states, in different years, while denouncing the other's version.

Industry groups warned the laws would face constitutional challenges, as prior versions in other states have. The governor's office said children were not a special interest. The industry said neither was the First Amendment.

At press time the infinite scroll was still infinite, pending an age check.