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Gov. DeSantis has doubts about FL lawmakers’ effort to ban children under 16 from social media [1]

['Jackie Llanos', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2024-01-26  

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that while social media has had a negative effect on kids, he’s concerned about the scope of a measure moving through the Legislature that would ban children under 16 from the platforms.

The governor made his opinion known during a press conference in Osceola County, which marked his first time taking reporters’ questions since he suspended his presidential campaign on Jan. 21.

House lawmakers approved HB 1 on Wednesday with overwhelming bipartisan support. If enacted, social media companies must use third-party age-verification software to ensure their users are at least 16. All accounts seeming to belong to anyone under that age must be deleted too.

Regardless of the support the bill has garnered from lawmakers, DeSantis said he would work on it and that the final product would be something that could hold up in court.

“I told the (House) speaker I’d worked with him on it, so this is something that’s likely going to evolve … and makes its way through the Senate. And we’ll see if we get a product that is going to be something that’s good, but I am concerned about the breadth of it,” he said. “I want to empower parents. I want to give parents the tools to be able to do this, and so I just think you got to be smart about how you do it.”

Worries over children facing bullying, exploitation, and mental health crises as a result of social media use united Republicans and most Democrats in their vote in the state House. Only 13 lawmakers voted against the proposal, all of them Democrats.

However, opponents of the bill, including the ACLU, say that it stifles freedom of expression and disrupts privacy. DeSantis also expressed worry about potential legal challenges.

“There have been other other states that have tried to do similar things that have met resistance in the courts. And not to say courts are always right about this, but I want a pathway for this to actually stick, so we’re going to look through that,” DeSantis said. “What I would say is I’m sympathetic to, as a parent, what’s going on with our youth, but I also understand that to just say that someone that’s 15 just cannot have it no matter what, even if the parent consents, that may create some legal issues.”

DeSantis held the press conference in NeoCity Academy, a STEM school in Osceola County, where he touted investments in education training for the manufacturing of semiconductors. The electronic devices are essential for modern technology.

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[1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/01/26/gov-desantis-has-doubts-about-fl-lawmakers-effort-to-ban-children-under-16-from-social-media/

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