Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier asked a state court on Wednesday to order Meta to remove all children under 14 from Facebook and Instagram and to switch off features the state says are designed to keep teenagers scrolling.

The request, filed in Pasco County Circuit Court, is a motion for a temporary injunction — an interim order a judge can grant while the underlying case is still being decided — and would impose sweeping new limits on how the apps behave for Florida minors and their parents. It arrives as the rest of the country has settled similar claims against the technology company.

The motion is one piece of a larger lawsuit Florida is pressing against Meta Platforms Inc. and Instagram LLC under the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, Florida's consumer-protection statute. Florida accuses the tech giant of marketing its apps as safe for young users even as internal and outside research has linked their use to anxiety, depression, self-harm, sleep loss, eating disorders, and unwanted sexual advances.

The court filing also cites internal chat logs from Meta employees comparing the apps to a narcotic. In one message, an employee wrote, "IG is a drug," while another described the company as "basically pushers."

What the order would affect

Under the proposed terms, infinite scrolling and autoplay would be disabled by default, while like and comment counts would remain hidden unless a parent chooses to turn them on. A default quiet mode would block access from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. every day, with an additional restriction from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays during the school year.

The state is also seeking tighter limits on time spent in the apps, including a two-hour daily cap, mandatory breaks after long sessions, and a combined ceiling of 60 hours per month.

Beyond usage controls, Florida wants Meta to work harder at preventing unrelated and random adults from messaging teens, to notify parents the first time an adult contacts their child, and to strengthen its response to sextortion reports.

The motion calls for stronger age-verification measures. It states that if Meta cannot implement these measures within 30 days of a court order, the company should be barred completely from serving users under 14 in Florida until it does.

Why Florida walked away from a national deal

On August 26, a group of states and territories reached a settlement with Meta that bundled a cash payment with youth-safety changes. According to Florida's Voice, that agreement was worth $11.66 billion spread over a decade across 51 states and territories.

Uthmeier argued that the payout was insignificant for a tech company valued at $1.86 trillion, according to Florida's motion, noting that the annual amount under the settlement equals roughly two days of Meta's revenue.

The contrast underscores what separates Florida's approach from the settlement: rather than a negotiated payment, the state is asking a court to impose product-level mandates that would directly shape how Facebook and Instagram operate for young users. The decision now rests with the Pasco County judge, who will weigh whether the temporary injunction should take effect while the broader case continues.