- A bill in Florida could force social media platforms to create encryption rear for the application of the law
- The bill “use of social networks by minors” would prevent minors from using or accessing any ephemeral messaging characteristic
- Privacy experts warn that these requirements will make young people less safe online
Florida is considering a bill that could force all social media platforms that allow accounts for minors to provide an encryption back door for the application of the law.
The bill will also prevent minors See once. Social network suppliers must also be required Give parents or guardians of lower access to all messages published by their children.
Known as the bill “Use of social networks by minors” (SB 868/HB 743), the proposal is the last legal effort to protect the safety of online children. However, privacy experts warn that these requirements will make young people less safe.
“Asking the impossible”
As wrote digital rights experts in Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), “the bill is not only invasive of privacy, but is also asking for the impossible.”
The encryption is used by the best VPN messaging applications and encrypted to keep the online activities of users private. WhatsApp and Signal use end -to -end encryption to fight in the data in an illegible form to ensure that only their planned recipients can read their messages.
In their own words, Florida legislators want to force the “social networks platforms to provide a mechanism to decipher end -to -end encryption when the police get a citation.”
Cryptographers and other experts, however, have long warned that what is known as an encryption back door cannot be implemented without undermining the safety of the entire system. This is because, in addition to the possibility of misuse of the authorities, the malicious actors will end up being able to exploit this point of entry.
Florida wants to introduce these requirements specifically for suppliers that allow minors to open an account in an attempt to improve the safety of online children. However, EFF experts believe that it will achieve exactly the opposite result.
“This would probably lead companies that do not offer end -to -end encryption to minors, making them less Online insurance, “they said.
The “Use of Social Networks of Children” of Florida is a poorly advised attempt to encrypt end -to -end encryption that asks the impossible. It should not be allowed to advance. https://t.co/axkwx0hj7April 13, 2025
Another contentious point is the “prohibit minor account holders to use or access messages designed to disappear or self -destruct.”
Once again, according to EFF experts, addressing this feature would end up damaging only everyone’s privacy, without achieving anything to protect children. Even ephemeral messages can be saved and reported if necessary.
The bill “Use of Social Networks by Minors” seeks to expand the scope of the Florida Social Networks Law (HB 3), which entered into force at the beginning of the year. Among other things, the law introduced mandatory age verification controls to access the material considered harmful to minors and a prohibition to open a social networks account to children under 14 years.
Law HB 3 was affected by a complaint in October, which raised concerns about implications of freedom of expression. Demand is still ongoing when writing.
For EFF, expert is obvious: legislators must reject the bill and focus on alternative protections, such as better digital consumer and literary privacy laws in school.
“The minors, as well as those around them, deserve the right to speak privately without the application of the law listening.”
A global impulse
Florida is only the last government by pressing to obtain greater access to the police to the encrypted data. The United Kingdom, the EU and even Switzerland, once it is believed that it is a paradise of privacy, are considering some form of encryption rear when writing.
However, the technology industry does not seem willing to weaken the safety of its systems. Apple decided to kill its Icloud E2E function in the United Kingdom for not building a back door and is now challenging the United Kingdom in court. While Signal has reiated more than once that the company would prefer to leave the market than to undermine the encryption.
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