As of January 1, 2025, it will technically be illegal for anyone under the age of 14 to have a social media account in Florida. Children aged 14 and 15 can receive these with the consent of their parents or guardians.
The controversial new law has been challenged on First Amendment grounds, and Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office announced last month that the state will not enforce the law on major social media platforms until the court rules on a motion for a preliminary injunction. A hearing will take place at the end of February.
So nothing happens immediately. However, the law calls for social media platforms to terminate the accounts of users suspected of being under the age of 14 – account owners have 90 days to dispute this – and some people may want to lose the months and years of content they have shared protect.
Here’s how to back up your accounts.
You can backup your X account by downloading the archive. Go to X and click More in the menu to get there Settings and privacy.
Below Your accountclick Download an archive of your account. You will be required to enter your password and you may need to verify your identity with a code sent by SMS.
In the next screen, click Request archive.
You will receive an email notification when the file is ready and you have one week to download the ZIP file before it is deleted.
To request a copy of your Facebook data, go to your Account CenterOn the desktop, click your profile picture in the upper right corner and click Settings and privacyThan Institutions to find it. In the app, tap your profile photo at the bottom right and then tap the Equipment settings at the top right and tap See more in Account Center. Than:
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Click Your data and permissions
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Click Download your information
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Click Download or transfer information
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Select the profiles you want to download information from and then click Next
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Select How Lots of information you want to download and click Next. You can choose to download everything available or choose which items you want, such as photos, posts, followers, etc
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Choose where you want to download your data and click Next.
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When you choose a destination, you can choose where. You can also plan future transfers. Click Start Transfer. You will be asked for your password.
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If you download it to a device, choose your options (date range, format, quality of downloads, etc.)
You will receive an email notification and a Facebook notification when your download is ready or the transfer is complete.
Downloading it will take you to the Available Downloads section of the Download your information tools, click Download and enter your password. The file remains available for four days.
Follow the same instructions as the Facebook backup above, just choose your Instagram account when it’s time to select the profile you want to back up.
To access it in the Instagram app, go to your profile page, tap the 3-line menu at the top right and choose Account Center. From there, follow the Facebook instructions.
In TikTok, go to your profile page and tap the 3-line menu at the top right. To elect Settings and privacy.
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Select your data you want to download (all info or select data only) and the file format (easy-to-read text or JSON, which allows other services to import your file)
You will be notified when the file is ready and you can download it by returning to the Download your data page and tapping Download. The file remains available for four days.
Although Bluesky has seen an increase in users in recent weeks, the service is still in its infancy and some things are not yet very useful, such as backing up your data. Backups are currently only available in JSON form in a CAR file, which can be read by any text editor such as Notepad or opened directly in a web browser.
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In the app, tap the 3-line menu at the top left and select Institutions.
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Crane Download CAR file and choose how you want it delivered
Please note that the download does not contain images, videos or your private information.
You need your Instagram password.
In your Threads app, tap your profile icon in the bottom right to go to your profile page, then tap the two-line menu icon in the top right to view your Institutions options. On a desktop, click the two-line menu at the bottom left and then click Institutions.
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Tap Download your information
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Enter the email address you want to send the link to the file to, then click Download requests.
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Enter your Instagram password and click Nextand then Finished.
You will receive an email titled Your Threads Data with a download link. Click on it and follow the instructions.
SnapChat doesn’t store your content, but you can download your account information, such as your personal information, other accounts you’ve blocked, reminders, Bitmnoji, various third-party activities, and more.
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In the app, go to Institutions and tap My details. You can get there on a desktop by going to accounts.snapchat.com.
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Select the data you want to download
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Choose the date range or turn it off to see everything
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Confirm the email address for the notification
You will receive an email with a download link once the file is ready, or you can go to accounts.snapchat.com/accounts/downloadmydata and tap See exportThan Download
There are three different data snippets you can query.
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Account information
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Click on the Equipment settingsand then click Billand then click Request account information
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Click Request account information
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Chat history
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Tap the name of the contact or group and then Export chat
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If the chat contains photos or video, choose Add media or Without media
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Choose how you want to receive the file. Please note that one-time messages are not recorded
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Channel activity
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Click on the Equipment settingsand then click Billand then click Request account information
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Click Request channel report
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This article originally appeared in The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Save Facebook, X, TikTok and other social media content. Here’s how
