Florida AG Seeks Dismissal of Complaint and Preliminary Injunction in Kids Social Media Case

“The reality is that many social-media platforms are dangerous for children because they are designed to attract as many eyeballs as possible for as long as possible,” said Moody in the opposition. “Florida answered that call and enacted HB3 with broad bipartisan support to limit children’s exposure to platforms’ addictive features.”

The case, Computer and Communications Industry Association v. Moody, concerns Florida’s HB-3, which prohibits kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to create accounts. CCIA co-filed a lawsuit with NetChoice, alleging that the bill conflicts with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague.

The plaintiffs said in their complaint that COPPA expressly permits website operators to retain “personal information from children” if they first get parental consent and “permits website operators to retain minor children’s personal information for certain enumerated purposes without parental consent.” For example, in instances where certain information is collected to protect the security or integrity of the site, parental consent would not be needed to retain data. This conflicts with the Florida law “because [of] HB3’s prohibition on retaining ‘personal information held by the social media platform relating to the terminated account,’” the complaint said.

In the motion to dismiss, Moody said, “Plaintiffs lack a cause of action for their preemption claims because COPPA does not create rights in platforms, and only the federal government can enforce COPPA in any event.”

In the motion opposing the preliminary injunction, Moody alleged that the plaintiffs did not show burden for the extraordinary and drastic remedy that is a preliminary injunction. She claimed they lacked standing and fail to state a claim, among other things.