HB 3 in Florida: Protecting minors on social media, where the blame lies with either God or the Devil
Author: ©2025 William Castano-Bedoya
THREE-MILE CHRONICLES::
This was no ordinary walk. It was a journey filled with irony and sarcasm, inspired by the current reality that governs us, by the things happening around us that we often accept as mere spectators—without acting, without questioning. Amid the slow rhythm of my steps and the thoughts sparked with each one, I found myself reflecting on Florida’s HB 3, a law that claims to “protect” minors on social media. A walk that, much like the law itself, becomes entangled in conundrums, absurdities, and contradictions we can no longer ignore.
In these times, when politics flaunts its charms as if they were spells, this legislative marvel emerges as a “Conundrum Law”, a framework where the contamination of children’s minds is placed in the hands of either God or the Devil—but never in ours. Did you, naïve as you are, believe that signing a piece of paper or pressing a magic button would be enough to make kids abandon TikTok or Instagram? That, just like that, they would stop absorbing, like sponges, the flood of toxic and degrading information? Defamation, pornography, sinister rivalries, revenge, discredit… everything humanity has created to harm itself finds its perfect channel in social media. And this law seems to think that drawing a fence around it will suffice to contain it.
HB 3, of course, is not unique. Similar laws are already sprouting in Utah, Texas, and Arkansas, carrying the same air of legislative panacea. Age verification, restrictions on private messaging, parents turned into almighty guardians… On paper, it sounds solid. But in practice, it’s a tragicomedy. How will parents protect their children if they need their children to explain how to configure TikTok? And teenagers, masters of digital evasion, already have VPNs, fake accounts, and YouTube tutorials up their sleeves to bypass any restriction. Meanwhile, platforms do the bare minimum, washing their hands clean with a simple form and hoping no one asks too many questions.
In Florida, HB 3 is celebrated with pomp and circumstance, as if the moral code of the 21st century had been deciphered. But when these laws fail—and fail they will, because they are born broken—who will be to blame? Not the parents, who continue to ignore their children’s phone use. Not the children, technological geniuses in the making. Not even the legislators, who draft projects with legal loopholes large enough to hold oceans of incompetence. No. According to the official script, the blame will fall on God or the Devil. Cast your first stone in whichever direction you prefer.
And as legislators celebrate these laws, political rhetoric plays at another level of irony. It’s ironic that those drafting rules against disinformation are the same ones spreading outrageous rumors. Remember that politician who claimed certain immigrants “eat dogs and cats, adorable pets of good people”? Or the insinuations after a recent massacre in New Orleans, where a super-powerful figure declared—without evidence—that the killer couldn’t be a “true American.” According to him, “the criminals coming here are much worse than the ones we already have.” A quote reportedly taken from the EFE news agency. As if the brutality of an act depended on where the perpetrator was born. The ultimate irony was discovering the criminal was as American as the president himself, whose ancestors came from Germany or perhaps Cochinchina.
Voltaire put it best: “Certainement, qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste.” In other words: “Certainly, he who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” And so, amid absurdities and injustices, HB 3 extends its halo of illusion, while citizens wonder if it really changes anything. Perhaps not. It’s simple: these laws clash with established rights and liberties—privacy, free speech—no one really understands their scope, and platforms will continue to do the bare minimum to avoid penalties.
And the teenagers? They navigate the digital waters like fish, always two steps ahead of the legislators. Meanwhile, adults, addicted to their own algorithms, fall into the conspiracies these laws aim to curb. Hannah Arendt reminds us that “lies and violence have always been tools of politics.” Without honesty and education, how can we expect legislation to succeed?
Without a real commitment from families to self-regulate, from communities to support parents, and from technological platforms to take on their social responsibility, these laws will remain empty conundrums. The solution does not lie in isolated state rules born broken; only a mandatory federal referendum with global reach could turn the protection of minors into an inalienable right.
Only legislation with constitutional force, requiring participation from the entire nation and elevating the protection of minors to an unassailable right, could truly change the narrative. And not just that: it should include clear criminal implications for those who violate protective laws, forcing tech giants to become true guardians of compliance. Platforms, which profit endlessly from mass participation, can no longer evade their responsibility. They must be legally obligated to protect minors, and any violation must be severely punished.
Meanwhile, legislators will keep applauding themselves, celebrating their “great contribution,” as if the appearance of action were enough. They are the ones who, with each hollow law, choose to ignore the inevitable failures to come. Meanwhile, parents will continue to ask their children for help configuring device privacy settings. And we, as always, will keep blaming God or the Devil for the futility of these laws. Because, of course, taking responsibility—as a society, as families, and as leaders—would be far too uncomfortable. Until we do, we’ll remain trapped in this cycle of broken illusions. Is that the future we want for ourselves and our children?
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William Castaño
William Castaño-Bedoya is an American writer based in Coral Gables, Florida. His literary fiction explores the ethical, psychological, and emotional structures that shape human relationships, focusing on love, vulnerability, and the tensions between power and compassion. His narrative voice is marked by interiority, silence, and moral inquiry, privileging emotional intelligence over spectacle. After a long career in marketing and creative leadership, he turned fully to literature, bringing a strategic understanding of contemporary human experience to his work. He is the author of several novels, including "The Intriguing Stillness of the Tides", "We the Other People", "Ludovico", "Flowers for Maria Sucel", "The Galpon", and "We’ll Meet in Stockholm".
