Here’s something you don’t see every day in the Florida House: Michele Rayner, the progressive Democrat, huddled with conservative Republicans Tyler Sirois and Fiona McFarland defending one of House Speaker Paul Renner’s top legislative priorities.
During debate on legislation to kick children under age 16 off social media and impose strict age-verification rules on internet porn sites, you also could have seen progressive Democrats demanding respect for parental rights to control their children’s social media habits.
Republican State Rep. Tyler I. Sirois, representing part of Brevard County. Credit: Florida House.
Sirois, of Brevard County, McFarland of Sarasota County, and Rayner, representing parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, are leading co-sponsors of HB 1, the proposed Social Media Use for Minors Act.
HB 3, the pornography-age verification measure, is being sponsored by Republicans Chase Tramont of Brevard and Volusia counties and Toby Overdorf, representing parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties.
The chamber put both bills through a “second reading,” procedurally a chance to explain and amend legislation in advance of a “third reading” and final passage, which could happen as soon as Wednesday.
What united the sponsors of the social-media bill across party lines, they explained during House action on Tuesday, was concern for minors facing bullying, exploitation, and mental health crises as a result of social media use.
These platforms are having a “devastating impact” on kids, including increased suicidal ideation and depression, especially among girls, Sirois complained. He compared the way the sites lure kids, through use of algorithms designed to keep them scrolling through content, to “digital fentanyl.”
The sponsors declined to identify specific platforms. “Our bill is focused on features” that the platforms themselves recognize are addictive, Sirois said.
Focus on features
“What this bill is working to do is to identify those features, to acknowledge the great harm that they are causing to our children, and to say to the companies that want to operate in this state … we think these are the standards you need to meet,” he added.
Sponsors were blunt about the potential effect for social media influencers who have been known to rack up substantial followings and income from their posts, even as teenagers.
“The short answer is that it does impact them. It would prohibit them from being able to be on social media,” Rayner said of the bill.
HB 1 forbids social media platforms from allowing people under 16 to join, based on “reasonable age verification methods” by “any commercially reasonable method regularly used by government agencies or businesses for the purpose of age and identity verification.” If the platform is unable to verify a person’s age, it must deny access.
Platforms must terminate accounts of people “reasonably known” to be under 16 and allow those users or their parents to terminate their own accounts and delete any personal information it holds.
They’d have to prominently display their policies regarding content moderation, use of “addictive design or deceptive pattern features,” and whether they allow posting of “manipulated photographs or digital images,” what they do to protect younger users from abusive practices, and whether they collect or sell “personal identifiers, biometrics, and geolocation data.”
And they’d have to provide information about how to report harmful activity and require users under between 16 and 18 to acknowledge having read a disclaimer detailing the dangers of social media.
Violations by platforms would be considered unfair or deceptive trade acts punishable by fines of up to $50,000 per incident and up to $10,000 in civil damages.
Losing amendments
The House voted down a series of proposed amendments, including one that would bar access to minors between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. — effectively, a curfew — and another that would lower the permissible age of access to 13. Democrat Anna Eskamani of Orange County, sponsor of both of those amendments, argued they would demonstrate respect for parents’ right to decide what’s best for their children.
The same fate met an amendment by Democrat Ashley Gantt of Miami-Dade County that would have allowed social media use by people under 18 with parental consent. It failed in an 83-33 rollcall vote.
“My concern is the government telling the parent how to parent a child,” Gantt said.
A legislative analysis warns that the bill may be unconstitutional on several grounds, including violation of the First Amendment and guaranteed rights of contract.
HB 3 would require platforms that allow people under 18 access to “material harmful to minors,” defined as appealing to “prurient interest” as established by “contemporary community standards,” to apply a “reasonable age verification method” conducted “by a nongovernmental, independent, third-party not affiliated with the commercial entity.”
This would include “patently offensive” sexual material that “when taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.” It contains penalties equivalent to those in the social media bill.
The bill’s legislative analysis notes that constitutional questions also would appear to apply here.
Mixed results
Other states have passed similar measures with mixed results, as the Phoenix has reported. In some places, porn sites have blocked state residents entirely; other such efforts have run into legal problems.
State Rep. Chase Tramont. Florida Channel.
Tramont didn’t think that’ll be a problem in Florida, which would have “the least restrictive means possible, the least intrusive means of verifying the age.”
Sites are already supposed to verify users’ ages, Tramont added. “They’re just doing a very poor job. Finally now, what we’re doing is, we’re holding them accountable for the failure that they’re doing here. And failure is no longer an option.”
Eskamani wanted to know whether the bill would capture TV fare such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the reality show. Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative Republicans have spent two years demonizing drag performances.
Tramont suggested it would not.
“This legislation is written to address pornographic material. Very specific. We all should agree that that is material harmful to minors. We’re not trying to make this about anything more, or anything less than what it is,” he said.
The post Support for denying kids access to social media crosses party lines in FL Capitol appeared first on Florida Phoenix.
This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
