Florida is asking a court to compel Meta to make structural changes to Facebook and Instagram, targeting the product features the state says drive compulsive use among teenagers and children. If granted, the relief would alter how minors actually experience those platforms every day, not just how much Meta pays in fines. This effort is part of a broader push around age laws reshaping how tech platforms handle minors online.
What Florida’s Complaint Alleges
The state’s complaint targets specific design features it says are built to hold teenagers’ attention at the expense of their wellbeing.
According to the complaint, Meta’s platforms are built around features designed to maximize the time users spend on them. Those features include infinite scroll (the function that loads new content automatically so feeds never end), autoplay video, push notifications, and algorithmic recommendations (software that decides what content to show each user based on past behavior).
Florida also alleges that Meta’s age-verification controls are ineffective. The complaint claims those controls allow some users younger than 13 to create and maintain accounts on Instagram despite its stated minimum age of 13.
The Relief Florida Is Seeking
The state is not asking only for fines; it wants a court to order changes to how the platforms are built.
Florida is asking the court to order structural changes to the engagement-driving features named in the complaint. The state is also requesting stronger age gating (requiring users to verify their age before accessing a platform), restrictions on the collection and monetization of minors’ personal data, injunctive relief preventing future conduct the state characterizes as deceptive or unfair, and civil penalties.
These are requested remedies. The court has not yet ordered them.
The Legal Theory Behind the Case
Two separate legal frameworks underpin Florida’s challenge to Meta’s practices.
Florida’s complaint invokes the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA. COPPA is a federal law that restricts how online platforms collect and use personal data from tracking users children under 13.
A separate federal complaint filed by Florida alleged that Meta’s features were designed to capture users’ attention, increase advertising exposure, and collect monetizable interaction data. That characterization reflects the state’s allegations, not a judicial finding.
Meta’s Position and Existing Safety Tools
Meta says it has already built meaningful protections into its platforms for younger users.
Meta says it has introduced Teen Accounts across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, with automatic restrictions on contact and content for users under 18. Users under 16 need parental permission to loosen those default settings. Parents can also cap a teenager’s Instagram use at 15 minutes per day and review messaging activity.
According to Meta-reported data, 97% of Instagram users aged 13 to 15 remained within the platform’s default restrictions; that figure has not been independently verified. Meta argues the lawsuits misrepresent its safety efforts and maintains, as a company position, that research on social media’s effects on teen mental health is not conclusive.
A Broader National Fight Over Platform Design
Florida’s case sits inside a larger legal movement pressing courts to reshape how social media works for minors.
Florida’s case is part of a national wave of lawsuits by state attorneys general, families, and young users alleging that social media platforms were built in ways that encourage compulsive use or expose minors to harmful content. The central legal question is whether courts can require specific changes to commercial platform design, rather than limiting relief to monetary penalties.
A court order compelling redesign, if granted, could set precedent for age verification, default account settings, recommendation systems, and notification practices across the platform industry. For parents and teenagers, the practical stakes are direct: a ruling in Florida’s favor could change what Instagram and Facebook look and feel like for anyone under 18.
