Florida’s Attorney General’s Office is asking a state court to impose new restrictions on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms for young users, arguing the company misrepresented the risks its products posed to children while designing features that encouraged prolonged use.
The state filed a motion for temporary injunction Wednesday in Pasco County Circuit Court as part of an ongoing lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. and Instagram LLC. Florida alleges the companies violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act through deceptive, unfair and unconscionable practices involving young users.
According to the motion, Meta publicly portrayed its platforms as safe for children and teenagers despite internal and outside research identifying potential harms including anxiety, depression, self-harm, sleep deprivation, eating disorders and unwanted sexual advances. Florida alleges Meta learned about problems affecting young users through internal research programs but continued to make statements minimizing those risks.
The filing also targets product features the state argues encourage excessive or compulsive use, including infinite scroll, autoplay, Reels, appearance-altering filters, visible like and comment counts, push notifications and time-sensitive content.
Florida is asking the court to require Meta to strengthen age verification and remove Florida users under 14. If Meta cannot implement the requested age-verification measures within 30 days of an injunction, the state wants the company barred from allowing young users to access its platforms in Florida until those protections are in place.
“Meta told parents Instagram and Facebook were safe. Its own research showed anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and predators in DMs,” said Attorney General James Uthmeier. “We just asked a Florida court to order Meta to turn off the features that addict teenagers and to leave Florida kids alone when they’re in school or sleeping. Meta tried to get us to take their low-ball settlement, but we wont sell out our kids.”
The proposed injunction would also place teen accounts into a default “quiet mode” from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. year-round and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays during the academic year. During those periods, teens would generally be unable to access Facebook or Instagram, and notifications would be suppressed except for urgent security or hazard alerts.
Florida is additionally seeking limits on teen usage, including a two-hour daily cap, mandatory pauses after extended use and a maximum of 60 hours per month across Facebook and Instagram. Infinite scroll and autoplay would be disabled by default, while like, comment and reaction counts would generally be hidden unless enabled through parental supervision.
The requested restrictions also address interactions between adults and minors. Florida wants Meta to prevent unconnected adults from messaging teen users, strengthen responses to reports of child sexual exploitation and sextortion, and provide parents with notices when an adult first messages their child.
Florida did not participate in an August settlement between Meta and 51 states and territories that included financial payments and youth-safety requirements. The state argues those terms do not provide sufficient protections and is seeking additional restrictions for Florida users.