Who Would Check a Florida Child's Age Under the Safe Screens Act? App Stores, Operating Systems and AI Chatbots in the 22 October 2026 Proposal

What Florida's Attorney General proposed on 22 October 2026

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier released a legislative proposal called the Safe Screens Act on 22 October 2026. It covers three kinds of company at once. App stores would have to determine each user's age, link a minor to a parent's account and obtain parental consent before a minor downloads or buys an app. AI chatbot operators would have to determine the age of every account holder. Operating systems would have to apply age-appropriate restrictions at the device level. The release requires all of this to use "commercially reasonable, privacy-protective methods" and names no method.

What the proposal would bar AI chatbots from offering minors

For every user under 18, chatbot operators could not offer features that simulate companionship through personification, emotional engagement or user-data retention, could not suggest the chatbot is a real person, and could not encourage self-harm, sexual content or isolation from trusted adults. Social media accounts for ages 14 to 17 would get a school-hours and overnight quiet mode, a two-hour daily cap and hidden like counts. Violations would be enforced as unfair practices under section 501.1736 of the Florida Statutes, the 2024 law that already bars social media accounts for children under 14, at up to $50,000 per violation.

Why the operating-system clause decides which company establishes a user's age

No bill text or sponsor has been published. The proposal would still need a legislator to file it before Florida's 2027 regular session, which opens on 2 March 2027. For AI chatbot age verification the design question is already concrete: which layer of a phone learns a child's age first, and which companies may rely on that signal.