Florida can continue enforcing its restrictions on children’s social-media accounts after a federal appeals court removed a preliminary injunction on October 14.
The Eleventh Circuit said the challenged provisions of HB 3 were likely constitutional as applied to the platforms represented in the lawsuit. The ruling returns the case to the district court; it is not a final judgment resolving the entire litigation.
The law bars children under 14 from creating accounts on covered platforms and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds. Its coverage turns on statutory criteria that include features designed to sustain user engagement.
The panel accepted that First Amendment interests were involved. But it treated the restrictions as content-neutral and found them likely to satisfy intermediate scrutiny, rather than the stricter test applied to content-based speech restrictions.
NetChoice, which brought the challenge with the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said the law forces people of all ages to surrender sensitive information to obtain access to lawful speech. The group said it was assessing its options and maintained that parents should control their families’ online choices.
Enforcement had already resumed in November 2025 after an earlier appellate stay. This decision addresses the injunction’s legal basis rather than bringing restrictions into operation for the first time.
The court also found the challengers had not adequately assessed the full range of the law’s applications for their broader facial challenge. It preserved the association’s standing to sue and rejected Florida’s argument that the federal court should have abstained.
Official opinion, No. 25-11881.
