TALLHASSEE, Florida — Florida officials sued tech giant TikTok on Monday in an attempt to enforce the state’s 2024 law restricting social media access for children.
The civil lawsuit, filed in St. Lucie County circuit court, is the latest major pushback from Florida against Big Tech, which has become a prominent foil for state GOP leaders over the growing use of social media and artificial intelligence. Florida’s social media restrictions were initially blocked in federal court amid pressure from tech companies that argued the law was a free speech violation, but the state was cleared in November to start enforcing the law for the first time.
State Attorney General James Uthmeier, who brought the lawsuit, said TikTok is liable to pay “potentially billons in damages” for allegedly deceiving parents and exposing children to harmful content on its app. And he warned this could only be the start for social media companies that may be skirting Florida’s law prohibiting children younger than 14 from using many platforms while requiring parental approval for 14- and 15-year-olds.
“Time is up for TikTok,” Uthmeier said during an event Monday. “TikTok happens to be one of the most egregious social media applications when it comes to the dangers that are there at the fingertips of kids.”
By design, the state’s restrictions don’t name any social media applications, instead targeting “addictive features” like infinite scrolling and platforms on which 10 percent or more of users are under 16 years old and spend more than two hours on average engaged.
Uthmeier noted some companies, such as Meta, are “compliant” with Florida’s law after deleting “hundreds of thousands” of accounts used by children. But TikTok, according to Florida's attorney general, is allegedly allowing children access to harmful content, such as pornography and self-harm videos, while deploying addictive features like unlimited scrolling and push notifications.
Officials with TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.
Florida has been using undercover agents to scout TikTok content, Uthmeier said, and his office believes some children are using the app for upwards of eight hours a day despite the state’s strict law.
“We are going to get our kids their lives back,” Uthmeier said.
Since being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2025, Uthmeier — who is up for election in November — has been a legal bulldog for the state by taking on companies such as OpenAI and even the popular children’s app Roblox over child safety concerns. Uthemeier is currently engaged in a similar lawsuit against social media app Snapchat, which Florida sued in 2025 before an appeals court determined the state could enforce its social media restrictions.
Florida’s lawsuit coincidentally coincides with another major tech regulation milestone: the U.K. announcing Monday it will also ban social media for all children under 16 years old.
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