Florida
Florida Age Verification Law: Two Provisions, Two Lawsuits, One AG Crackdown
Florida's House Bill 3 (2024) created two separate age-verification requirements: one restricting social media accounts for minors, still contested in federal court, and one requiring adult websites to verify visitors are 18 or older, which survived its own court challenge and is now the basis for active enforcement actions by the Florida Attorney General's office.
Information last verified on 2026-08-13. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.
HB 3's Two Provisions
Florida's House Bill 3, signed March 25, 2024, bundles two age-related requirements that both took effect January 1, 2025, but are legally severable and had entirely different paths through federal court. restricts minors' social media accounts. Sections 501.1737 and 501.1738, a separate part of the same bill, require adult-content sites to verify visitors' ages. Treating "Florida's age-verification law" as a single thing risks describing the wrong regime, since one is still contested on appeal and the other's litigation has already ended.
| Social media (§ 501.1736) | Adult content (§§ 501.1737-.1738) | |
|---|---|---|
| Effective date | January 1, 2025 | January 1, 2025 |
| What it covers | Accounts for minors under 14 (barred); parental consent for ages 14-15 | Sites where more than 33.3% of content is material harmful to minors |
| Verification method | Age assurance for account creation | User's choice of an anonymous or a standard verification method |
| Penalty | Up to $50,000/violation plus private right of action (up to $10,000, 1-year window) | Same penalty structure as the social-media provision |
| Litigation status | Enforced; injunction stayed by 11th Cir. Nov. 25, 2025; appeal on the merits still pending | Litigation concluded; FSC's challenge voluntarily dismissed Jul. 2025 |
The Social-Media Rule: Enforced While On Appeal
prohibits minors under 14 from creating or holding social media accounts and requires parental or guardian consent before a 14- or 15-year-old can hold one. It sets account-termination timelines: five business days after a user's own request, ten business days after a parent or guardian's request, and a 90-day dispute window for platform-initiated terminations, along with permanent deletion of a terminated account's personal information. The Department of Legal Affairs (the Attorney General's office) can pursue civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation plus fees and costs, along with punitive damages for a knowing or reckless pattern of violations, and the law gives minors a private right of action for up to $10,000 in damages within one year of discovering a violation.
CCIA and NetChoice sued over this provision in October 2024. A federal district court preliminarily enjoined enforcement on June 3, 2025, holding the law likely violates the First Amendment. Florida appealed, and the 11th Circuit stayed that injunction on November 25, 2025, by a 2-1 vote, finding Florida had made a "strong showing" the law is facially content-neutral and satisfies intermediate scrutiny. That let enforcement resume, and Attorney General Uthmeier's office has publicly said it is "aggressively enforcing" the requirement as of late November 2025. A stay pending appeal is not a merits ruling, though: the statute could still be struck down once the 11th Circuit rules on the underlying appeal, which remained pending as of the most recent sources located for this article.
The Adult-Content Rule: Litigation Closed
Fla. Stat. sections 501.1737 and 501.1738 require a commercial entity distributing material harmful to minors, where that material makes up more than 33.3 percent of a site or app's total content, to verify that users are 18 or older. Unlike some peer states, Florida requires covered sites to offer both an "anonymous" and a "standard" age-verification method and let the user choose which one to use. Bona fide news and news-gathering organizations are excluded, as are internet service providers, search engines, and cloud providers that are not liable merely for providing access to third-party content. Penalties mirror the social-media provision: up to $50,000 per violation sought by the Department of Legal Affairs, plus punitive damages for a knowing or reckless pattern, and a private right of action for minors up to $10,000 within one year of discovery.
The Free Speech Coalition sued over this provision in December 2024 on First Amendment grounds. After the U.S. Supreme Court's June 27, 2025 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton upheld a nearly identical Texas law, the Florida claim became untenable. The plaintiffs filed a notice of voluntary dismissal on July 8, 2025, and the presiding judge formally closed the case the following day. No pending challenge to this section has surfaced in this research.
Active Enforcement: AG Uthmeier's Complaints Against Noncompliant Sites
Because the adult-content provision's litigation is closed, Florida's Attorney General has moved to active enforcement. In August 2025, AG James Uthmeier's office filed complaints against site operators alleging violations of section 501.1737, including against Webgroup Czech Republic, NKL Associates, Sonesta Technologies, and GGW Group, entities associated with running XVideos.com, XNXX.com, BangBros.com, and GirlsGoneWild.com, and separately against Gethins Limited, Toccata, and Segpay entities. This is real enforcement against named operators, not merely a statute sitting unused on the books. Pornhub, for its part, chose to block Florida visitors entirely rather than build a compliant verification system.
What This Means If You Live in Florida or Run a Site There
If you operate a covered adult-content site, Florida's verification requirement has been in force since January 2025, its underlying court challenge is closed, and the Attorney General's office has already brought enforcement actions against noncompliant operators. If you operate a social media platform, the minors' account restrictions are currently enforceable because the 11th Circuit stayed the injunction against them, but the underlying constitutional question remains open on appeal. For Florida's broader data-privacy framework, see Florida data privacy laws.
Disclaimer
This article provides general information about Florida's age-verification statutes. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The social-media provision's appeal remains open and its outcome could change the enforceable status described above; verify current status with the Florida Attorney General's office, the 11th Circuit's docket, or a licensed Florida attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.
Related Articles
- Age Verification Laws by State
- Georgia Age Verification Law
- Virginia Age Verification Law
- Florida Data Privacy Laws
Last updated: 2026-08-13.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Florida's social media law for minors currently enforceable?
Yes. The 11th Circuit stayed the injunction against it on November 25, 2025, letting Florida resume enforcement. That is a stay pending appeal, not a final ruling, so the case remains open.
Is Florida's adult-content age-verification law still being challenged in court?
No. The Free Speech Coalition voluntarily dismissed its challenge in July 2025 after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar Texas law, and the case was formally closed.
Has Florida sued any porn sites for not verifying ages?
Yes. In August 2025, Attorney General James Uthmeier's office filed complaints against operators of sites including XVideos.com, XNXX.com, and BangBros.com, alleging violations of Florida's age-verification statute.
What happens if a site doesn't comply with Florida's adult-content law?
The Department of Legal Affairs can pursue civil penalties of up to $50,000 per violation plus fees and costs, punitive damages for a knowing or reckless pattern, and minors have a private right of action for up to $10,000 in damages within one year of discovering a violation.
Can minors sue under Florida's social media law?
Yes, the law includes a private right of action allowing minors to seek up to $10,000 in damages within one year of discovering a violation, separate from the Attorney General's civil-penalty authority.
Is Pornhub blocked in Florida?
Reporting indicates Pornhub chose to block access to Florida visitors rather than build a compliant age-verification system, the same pattern seen in Georgia, Missouri, and Virginia.
Updates
Independently fact-checked against the cited primary sources
The Law Behind This Article
This article rests on 3 statutory provisions held in our own legal record, each retrieved from the official source. Tap a section to read the operative text.
Florida Statutes
§ 501.1736Social media use for minors.In forcecited in 3 of our articles
(1) As used in this section, the term:(a) “Account holder” means a resident who opens an account or creates a profile or is identified by the social media platform by a unique identifier while using or accessing a social media platform when the social media platform knows or has reason to believe the resident is located in this state. (b) “Daily active users” means the number of unique users in the United States who used the online forum, website, or application at least 80 percent of the days during the previous 12 months, or, if the online forum, website, or application did not exist during the previous 12 months, the number of unique users in the United States who used the online forum, website, or application at least 80 percent of the days during the previous month. (c) “Department” means the Department of Legal Affairs. (d) “Resident” means a person who lives in this state for more than 6 months of the year. (e) “Social media platform” means an online forum, website, or application that satisfies each of the following criteria:1. Allows users to upload content or view the content or activity of other users; 2.
Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at leg.state.fl.us
Cited in 1 court opinionsMost recently applied by a court: 2025
Leading cases: NetChoice v. Carr (District Court, N.D. Georgia 2025)
Identified automatically from the court opinions citing this section — not a ranking of which case controls.
Also relied on in: Florida Sues TikTok Under HB3 Social Media Minors Law (2026), Florida Data Privacy Laws: Digital Bill of Rights & Breach Rules (2026)
§ 501.1737Age verification for online access to materials harmful to minors.In force
(1) As used in this section, the term:(a) “Anonymous age verification” has the same meaning as in s. 501.1738. (b) “Commercial entity” includes a corporation, a limited liability company, a partnership, a limited partnership, a sole proprietorship, and any other legally recognized entity. (c) “Department” means the Department of Legal Affairs. (d) “Distribute” means to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, transmit, circulate, or disseminate by any means. (e) “Material harmful to minors” means any material that:1. The average person applying contemporary community standards would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; 2. Depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct as specifically defined in s. 847.001(19); and 3. When taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors. (f) “News-gathering organization” means any of the following:1. A newspaper, news publication, or news source, printed or published online or on a mobile platform, engaged in reporting current news and matters of public interest, and an employee thereof who can provide documentation of such employment. 2.
Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at leg.state.fl.us
§ 501.1738Anonymous age verification.In force
(1) As used in this section, the term “anonymous age verification” means a commercially reasonable method used by a government agency or a business for the purpose of age verification which is conducted by a nongovernmental, independent third party organized under the laws of a state of the United States which:(a) Has its principal place of business in a state of the United States; and (b) Is not owned or controlled by a company formed in a foreign country, a government of a foreign country, or any other entity formed in a foreign country. (2) A third party conducting anonymous age verification pursuant to this section:(a) May not retain personal identifying information used to verify age once the age of an account holder or a person seeking an account has been verified. (b) May not use personal identifying information used to verify age for any other purpose. (c) Must keep anonymous any personal identifying information used to verify age. Such information may not be shared or otherwise communicated to any person.
Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at leg.state.fl.us
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Sources and References
- Fla. Stat. 501.1736, Social media use by minors(flsenate.gov).gov
- Fla. Stat. 501.1737, Protection of minors; material harmful to minors; commercial entities(flsenate.gov).gov
- NetChoice, statement on the 11th Circuit's November 25, 2025 stay ruling(netchoice.org)
- Florida Phoenix, "Attorney general will now 'aggressively enforce' social media ban on minors"(floridaphoenix.com)
- CBS News Miami, "Florida porn age verification law challenge dropped"(cbsnews.com)
- WUSF, "Florida AG Uthmeier sues adult video sites for ignoring age verification law" (Aug. 6, 2025)(wusf.org)