Florida asks the court to force Meta to limit the use of Instagram and Facebook by minors

In a petition filed in a Pasco County court, state Attorney General James Uthmeier requested an interim order for the company to identify and remove Florida users under the age of 14 from Facebook and Instagram.

He also asked Meta to limit the use of applications by teenagers in the state to two hours a day, adding up the time spent on all of them, and disable features such as automatic content playback and infinite scrolling for these teenagers, which allows them to continue viewing publications without reaching the end of the page.

The state wants the measures to come into force immediately and be maintained while the case against Meta is ongoing. Sought by Reuters, Meta has not yet taken a position.

The lawsuit accuses the company of designing its platforms to cause addiction in young people and of misleading consumers about the safety of the services. The lawsuit is one of dozens of similar lawsuits filed by states against the company.

In August, Meta reached a settlement with 48 other states and Washington, D.C., committing to pay up to $18 billion and make changes to its teen platforms. The value is equivalent to around three to four months of profit and one month of company revenue.

In the petition, the state classified the agreement as "a mere slap on the wrist" and argued that it will be seen only as a cost of doing business, without preventing the repetition of this type of behavior.

The measures requested by Florida are stricter than those accepted by Meta in the agreement. They also include blocking teens from accessing messages after they reach the daily usage limit and prohibiting ads from being shown to this audience.