March 25(Reuters) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on

Monday signed a bill that bans children aged under 14 from

social media platforms and requires 14- and 15-year-olds to get

parental consent, a measure supporters say will protect them

from online risks to their mental health.

The measure requires social media platforms to terminate the

accounts of people under 14 and those of people under 16 who do

not have parental consent. It requires them to use a third-party

verification system to screen out those who are underage.

The state's Republican-led legislature passed a bill in

February that would have banned children under 16 from social

media entirely. DeSantis, a Republican, vetoed that bill earlier

this month, saying it limited parents' rights.

The amended version allows for parents to provide consent

for older children to engage on social media platforms. It will

become law on July 1.

"Social media harms children in a variety of ways," DeSantis

said in a statement. He said the legislation "gives parents a

greater ability to protect their children."

Supporters have said the legislation will stem the harmful

effects of social media on the well-being of children who use

such platforms excessively and may experience anxiety,

depression and other mental illnesses as a result.

Critics have said the bill violates the U.S. Constitution's

First Amendment protections for free speech and that parents,

not the government, should make decisions about the online

presence of their children of all ages.

Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook,

opposed the legislation, saying it would limit parental

discretion and raise data privacy concerns because of the

personal information users would have to provide to be

age-verified. Meta has said it supports federal legislation for

online app stores to secure parental approval for downloads by

children.

The bill does not name any specific social media platforms,

but states that its targets are social media sites that promote

"infinite scrolling," display reaction metrics such as likes,

feature auto-play videos and have live-streaming and push

notifications. It would exempt websites and apps whose main

function is email, messaging or texting between a particular

sender and recipient.

The measure requires social media companies to permanently

delete personal information collected from terminated accounts

and let parents bring civil lawsuits against those failing to do

so.

In March 2023 Utah became the first U.S. state to adopt laws

regulating children's access to social media, followed by others

including Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio and Texas, according to a

legislative analysis prepared for the Florida bill. The analysis

said numerous other states were contemplating similar

regulations.