- A bill in Florida could force social media platforms to create encryption back doors for law enforcement
- The “Social Media Use of Minors” would prevent minors from using or accessing any fleeting message functions
- Privacy experts warn such demands will make young people less secure online instead
Florida is considering a bill that can force all social media platforms that allow minors to encryption back door for law enforcement.
The bill also prevents minors from using or accessing fleeting notification functions, which means messages that disappear after viewing, including WhatsApps See once. Providers on social media will also be required to Give minor parents or guardians access to all messages sent by their children.
The proposal is known as “Social Media Use of Minors” Bill (SB 868/HB 743), the proposal is the latest legal effort to protect children’s security online. Still, privacy experts warn that such demands will make young people less secure instead.
“Asking for the impossible”
As digital rights experts at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wrote: “The bill is not only privacy, it also asks for the impossible.”
Encryption is used by the best VPNs and encrypted messaging apps to keep users’ online activities private. WhatsApp and Signal use end-to-end encryption to encrypt data into an ugly form to ensure that only your intended recipients can read your messages.
According to their own words, Florida’s lawmakers want to force “social media platforms to provide a mechanism to decrypt end-to-end encryption when law enforcement gets a subpoena.”
However, cryptographers and other experts have long warned that what is known as an encryption back door cannot be implemented without undermining the entire system’s safety. This is because vicious actors in addition to the possibility of abuse, malicious actors will end up exploiting this entry point.
Florida wants to introduce such requirements specifically for providers that allow minors to open an account in an attempt to improve children’s security online. Still, EFF experts believe it will get the opposite result.
“This is likely to lead to companies that do not offer end to end encryption to minors, at all, making them less Safe online, ”they said.
Florida’s bill of “social media of minors” is a poorly advised attempt to back door end-to-end encryption that asks the impossible. It should not be allowed to move on. https://t.co/axikwx0hj7April 13, 2025
Another contentious point is the plan to “prohibit smaller account holders from using or accessing messages designed to disappear or self -destruction.”
Again, according to EFF experts, targeting this feature would end up only harming all privacy instead without achieving anything to protect children. Even volatile messages can be stored and reported if necessary.
Ticket “Social Media Use from Minor” is trying to expand the range of Florida’s Social Media Act (HB 3), which came into force at the beginning of the year. Among other things, the law introduced mandatory age verification control for access to material that is considered detrimental to minors and a ban to open a social media account for children younger than 14.
The HB 3 law was hit by a complaint back in October and raised concerns about free statements of utterance. The trial is still going on at the time of writing.
For EFF expert, a no-brainer legislators should reject the bill and focus on alternative protection, such as better consumer privacy legislation and digital literarcy in school.
“Minors as well as those around them deserve the right to speak privately without law enforcement listening in.”
A global push
Florida is only the latest government pushing to gain law enforcement greater access to encrypted data. The United Kingdom, the EU and even Switzerland – once thought to be a privacy paradise – is considering a form of encryption back door at the time of writing.
However, Technical Industry does not look willing to weaken the safety of their system. Apple decided to kill its iCloud E2E function in the UK so as not to build a back door and is now challenging the United Kingdom in court. While Signal has resumed more than once that the company would rather leave the market than undermine encryption.
