Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is asking a Pasco County judge to impose sweeping restrictions on Instagram and Facebook, extending a legal battle that began in December 2024 over allegations that Meta Platforms Inc. harmed children through addictive social media features.

The motion, filed Wednesday, Oct. 7, is part of a lawsuit originally brought by then-Attorney General Ashley Moody. The state selected Pasco County as the venue, citing alleged harm to local families and the company's business activities in the county.

Pasco County Circuit Judge Alicia Polk has presided over the case, denying Meta's motion to dismiss the lawsuit in October 2025. The company subsequently challenged her ruling in the Second District Court of Appeal.

The latest motion asks the court to remove Florida users younger than 14 from Meta's platforms, limit teenagers to two hours of daily use and disable features the state alleges encourage compulsive scrolling.

A judge has not granted the requested injunction.

Why Florida chose Pasco County for the lawsuit

Florida's original 56-page complaint identifies several connections between the state's allegations and Pasco County.

The filing cites lawsuits involving Florida families, including a wrongful death case brought by a mother who alleged that social media addiction contributed to her son's death.

It also references litigation involving local school districts. Pasco and Pinellas county school districts were among those that filed separate lawsuits against Meta, alleging that excessive social media use contributed to problems involving students' attention, behavior and mental health.

Pasco County Schools joined other Florida districts in litigation filed in California in May 2024, according to the state's complaint.

In Paragraph 29, state attorneys argued that Pasco County was an appropriate venue under Florida Statute 47.051 because the alleged cause of action accrued there.

The complaint also alleges Meta conducted business and engaged in the challenged practices in Pasco County and elsewhere in Florida.

Polk, a circuit judge assigned to civil cases at the Robert D. Sumner Judicial Center in Dade City, denied Meta's motion to dismiss in October 2025. She also signed a February 2026 order addressing the confidentiality of court records in the case, according to the Pasco County Clerk of Court.

Florida seeks limits on teen accounts and social media features

The Oct. 7 injunction request seeks immediate restrictions while the underlying consumer protection lawsuit continues.

Beyond removing users younger than 14 and imposing a two-hour daily limit for teenagers, the state wants Meta to disable infinite scrolling, autoplay, public like counts and late-night notifications for younger users.

Florida also seeks to prohibit advertisements to teenagers and terminate their direct messaging access once they reach the daily limit.

The state argues Meta knowingly designed Instagram and Facebook to encourage excessive use while misleading parents about the platforms' safety.

"Meta built Instagram and Facebook to keep kids scrolling. Their own research showed the harm; anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and predators in the direct messages," Uthmeier said in a video posted to X on Oct. 7. "Then they told parents the apps were safe."

The filing cites internal company communications, including messages describing Instagram as a drug and employees as pushers, according to FL Voice News.

It also alleges Meta failed to act on approximately 700,000 accounts belonging to underage users.

Those claims remain allegations in the ongoing case.

Meta rejected the request, calling it "meritless." A spokesperson argued Florida should instead encourage other platforms, including YouTube and TikTok, to strengthen protections for teenagers, Reuters reported.

Florida rejected national settlement with Meta

Florida's request follows its decision not to participate in an August settlement between Meta and 48 other states and Washington, D.C.

The agreement, valued at up to $18 billion, includes financial payments and changes intended to strengthen protections for younger users.

Uthmeier criticized the settlement as a "mere slap on the wrist," arguing that it would not adequately deter future misconduct.

Florida's proposed restrictions would go further in several areas, including removing users younger than 14 and prohibiting advertising to teenagers.

Meta denied wrongdoing in reaching the national settlement and has maintained that it works to protect young users.

The dispute also intersects with Florida's HB 3, a law signed in 2024 that prohibits children younger than 14 from holding accounts on covered social media platforms and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds.

In November 2025, a divided panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the state to begin enforcing the law while a First Amendment challenge continued, Central Florida Public Media reported.

Jennifer Mitchell, a New Port Richey mother whose 16-year-old son died by suicide in 2019, told Fox 13 in August that the national settlement did not go far enough.

"Sometimes you got to hit them where it hurts in order for a company to make a difference if they're that big," Mitchell said.

No hearing date for Florida's temporary-injunction request has been confirmed.