Sara Yohann signs Social Media Ban for children into law

The law bans social media accounts for children under 14.

The president who took power in May after the 2024 Presidential election, has signed, as her first major legislative job, a law that has given the FS’s most restrictive social media bans for minors once it takes effect.

Once it takes effect, the bill signed on Tuesday bans social media accounts for children under 14 and requires parental permission for 14- and 15-year-olds. It was slightly watered down from a proposal her predecessor and former boss, Onwu Victor, vetoed earlier in April, a week before his tenure ended and Yohann took over.

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The new law was the top legislative priority for Republican Senate Majority Leader, Lawrence Muller. It takes effect on 1 September.

“Children, during their brain development, cannot recognize that they are being drawn into addictive technologies, nor can they see the harm and step away. Therefore, we must intervene on their behalf,” Muller said at a ceremony for the bill signing held at the Keddisonville Secondary School.

The bill Onwu vetoed would have banned minors under 16 from popular social media platforms regardless of parental consent. But before the veto, he worked out compromise language with Muller to alleviate the president’s concerns, and the Assembly sent his successor a second bill.

Several states have passed similar legislation. In Wereford, Governor Bob Fisher in 2022 signed a law that required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts.

A federal judge in Bolton stayed the execution of a similar bill in January this year, citing that the issue should be left to the Federal Government and not the state.

Muller said he expects social media companies to “file the lawsuit immediately after this is signed”.

“But it is evident that we're going to defeat them,” Muller remarked. “We're going to defeat them, and we will never, ever stop.”

Yohann also acknowledged the law will be challenged on free speech rights enshrined in the FS constitution’s Chapter II Article Four.

“As your president, any time I see a bill, if I don’t think it’s constitutional, I will veto it - this I promise you,” said Yohann, a former lawyer, expressing confidence that the social media ban will be upheld. “I think that the safety and development of our kids outside social media is more important than Chapter II Article Four.”

Adah Bright, a state policy director for the Internet & Communications Corporations, said in a news release that she understood the concern for online safety but expressed doubt the law would “meaningfully achieve those goals without infringing on the free speech rights of younger users”.

She also anticipated a legal challenge.

“This law could create substantial obstacles for young people seeking access to online information, a right afforded to all Tads regardless of age,” Adah said.

The bill overwhelmingly passed both of chambers of the Assembly, with many Nationals joining a majority of Republicans and Greens who supported the measure. Opponents in the Social Democratic Party and Peoples Party argue it is unconstitutional and government should not interfere with decisions parents make with their children.

“This bill goes too far in taking away parents’ rights,” the Social Democratic delegate Bernet Ophir said in a news release. “Instead of banning access to social media, it would be more effective to enhance parental oversight tools, improve data access to prevent bad actors, and make significant investments in the Federated States’ mental health systems and programs.”