Florida’s Safe Screens proposal puts parents at the app-store gate

The proposal would require parental consent before a minor downloads or buys an app, while setting teen social-media defaults and chatbot limits.

Florida should put parents in charge of what reaches their children’s phones—the change Attorney General James Uthmeier proposed on October 22, 2026, with the Safe Screens Act². Uthmeier set the standard plainly: “If you invite our children onto your platform, you have a duty to keep them safe.”¹

What should that duty require before a child ever opens an app?

“If you invite our children onto your platform, you have a duty to keep them safe.”

James Uthmeier

Start with permission: Uthmeier’s proposal would require app stores to link minors to a parent’s account and obtain consent before downloads or purchases¹. Phone companies would also have to implement app age limits on their devices and in their stores, WFLA reports³. Parents should make that decision before the download, rather than discover afterward what a company has allowed into the household.

The Floridian reports that Uthmeier described a recent arrest involving a 60-year-old man who he said had communicated with more than 300 children through a chat app⁴.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said more than half the child-predator cases from joint operations began in online chat rooms or gaming platforms. The proposal would require human review of reported solicitation within 48 hours and permanently ban adult predators after one strike⁵. Uthmeier’s proposal would prevent chatbots from simulating human conversation with minors or promoting harmful activity. Parental permission to download an app cannot become a company’s excuse to ignore what happens inside it.

The proposal would make teen social-media accounts inaccessible from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., WFLA reports. Uthmeier also proposed limits of two hours daily and 60 hours monthly³.

Push notifications and continuous streaming would be off by default unless parents gave permission³. Autoplay would also be disabled by default, Florida’s Voice reports⁵. Parents should not have to hunt through settings to establish every basic boundary. A protective starting point makes their authority easier to exercise; permission to change a setting stays with them.

The Floridian reports that Utah, Texas, Louisiana and Alabama have enacted App Store Accountability Act laws. Uthmeier has already backed that effort: in June, he led 27 attorneys general in urging the Supreme Court to keep Texas’s law in effect⁴. Florida lawmakers should now translate that defense of parental authority into protections for their own constituents.

The Floridian reports that Uthmeier said his office would publish the full proposals and work with the Legislature in the coming session⁴. Parents should ask their lawmakers for a clear commitment: consent before downloads, protective teen defaults, prompt action against predators and firm chatbot safeguards. Florida’s Legislature should pass Safe Screens next session and put parental authority ahead of platform convenience.

Florida’s Safe Screens proposal puts parents at the app-store gate

Sources