• Florida child restraint law applies to children from birth through age five.child in the car image by Natalia Pavlova from Fotolia.com
  
  While all 50 states have legislation requiring child safety restraints in motor vehicles, the requirements vary significantly from state to state. Florida has one of the least comprehensive child safety seat laws in the country.
  
  

Birth Through Three Years Old

• Children from birth through 3 years old must be restrained in a federally approved child safety seat. This may be a separate child safety seat or an integrated child safety seat built into the vehicle by the manufacturer.
  
  

Four and Five Years Old

• Children aged 4 through 5 years old are required to be restrained in a vehicle, either in a child safety seat or with a regular vehicle seat belt.
  
  

Exceptions

• Florida child restraint law applies to all motor vehicles with the exception of school buses, public buses, farm vehicles, trucks over 26,000 lb. and motorcycles.
  
  

Penalties for Violation

• The fine for violating Florida's child safety seat law is $60, along with three points on the driver's record.
  
  

Booster Seat Law

• Florida is one of only three states that does not have a booster seat law. The Florida legislature proposed a bill (House Bill 443) that would have required booster seat use through age seven and lap/shoulder seat belt use through age 18, but this bill died in committee in 2007.
  
  

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Recommendations

• While individual states are free to pass their own child safety seat laws, the laws of physics are the same regardless of location. Car accidents are the number one cause of death for children ages 3 through fourteen. Proper child safety seat use can prevent injury or death. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends a rear-facing car seat until the child is at least one year of age and at least 20 lb., a forward-facing harnessed seat until age 4 or until the child reaches the height or weight limit of the seat, a seat belt-positioning booster seat until the child is 8 years old or at least 4 feet 9 inches tall, and a lap/shoulder belt in the back seat for children over 4 feet 9 inches in height.