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Florida law requires every driver, every front-seat passenger and every passenger under 18 to wear a seat belt or, for a young child, use a child seat.
The law is section 316.614 of the Florida Statutes, called the Florida Safety Belt Law. The driver is responsible for any passenger under 18 who is not buckled. A front-seat passenger 18 or older is responsible for his or her own belt. The belt rule for passengers 18 and older is written for the front seat.
Young children need more than a belt. Under section 316.613, a child 5 or younger must ride in a crash-tested, federally approved child restraint. Children through age 3 must be in a separate car seat or a seat built into the vehicle by the manufacturer. Children 4 and 5 may use a car seat or a booster seat.
A seat belt violation is a nonmoving violation. A child restraint violation is a moving violation and adds 3 points to the driver's license. The 2005 edition of the law said police could enforce the belt rule for drivers and passengers 18 and older only as a secondary action, after stopping a driver for some other violation. That wording was gone by the 2009 edition and is not in the 2026 edition.
The law lists exemptions, among them a person with a doctor's certification that a belt is not appropriate for a medical condition, and some newspaper delivery, trash collection and rural mail workers on their routes. It does not cover motorcycles, mopeds or bicycles. For a question about your own case, ask a Florida attorney.
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