Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) may have dropped out of the presidential race, but he is once again blazing a trail of conservative governance in the Sunshine State by signing legislation to protect children online.

On Monday, DeSantis signed HB 3, which prohibits children under the age of 14 from making accounts on social media websites and requires 14- and 15-year-olds to have parental consent to make social media accounts. It’s the most aggressive effort to police widespread social media use among minors to date, and it is something that conservative lawmakers around the country should embrace.

The instinctual reaction to this new law among many conservatives may be to recoil. On its surface, this law may seem like an undue expansion of government authority that interferes with the private lives of its citizens while moving Florida closer and closer to a nanny state.

But that is not the case. Social media use and addiction among children are causing untold harm to an entire generation just as they are entering the most formative time of their lives. What they see and hear on TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere can easily influence what they believe to be good and true.

The restriction on social media access for teenagers and children is no different than barring those same children from driving a car or drinking alcohol. Parents can allow their children to use these platforms if they want to, just as they can allow a 10-year-old to drive the family car on private property or have a glass of wine at family dinner.

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For the state of Florida, the proliferation of harmful content on social media is affecting the stability and future of its population. A generation that is addicted to social media and follows any promoted fad is volatile and uninformed. By enacting this law, DeSantis and the Florida legislature are ensuring that future generations of voters do not become mentally enslaved to social media sites that control what they see and, by extension, what they believe.

Preventing harm to minors from social media is conservative governance, and it is the kind of limited role a government should have in keeping its people and institutions stable and safe. More states and the federal government should follow suit.