Thanks to a bill passed by the Florida legislature last week, in a few months, barring a possible veto and almost certain legal challenges, everyone in the state who is younger than 16 may be banned from joining social media sites, and any of their existing accounts will be deleted in one of the strictest social media bans in the country. However, the legislature passed the strictest social media bill in the country without the blessing of Gov. Ron DeSantis, and without expressly laying out which social media platforms are prohibited. The bill has yet to be signed into law. Supporters of the bill have said it would stem the harmful effects of social media on the well-being and mental health of children who use such platforms excessively. Critics of the bill have said it violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections for free speech, and that parents, not government should make decisions about the online presence of their children.
Out, queer Democratic Florida Rep. Michele Rayner of District 62 in St. Petersburg, joined conservative Republican House Speaker Paul Renner to support a ban on social media access for kids under 16 years old. Now, she and her peers, like Tsi Day Smyth, Vice President and Public Relations Chair of Voices of Florida, a Black & queer-led advocacy group dedicated to human rights and reproductive freedom, are at odds over this legislation. Both Rep. Rayner and Tsi Smyth joined MidPoint Wednesday to share their views on the bill.
The bill would require age verification either by a third-party company or by the social media site itself for an applicant to be accepted or retained on the site. Rep. Rayner suggested that the age verification process would not be onerous or overly intrusive. She also insisted this legislation does not constitute a “ban,” since it is designed to target only those sites that promote addictive behaviors with functions such as “infinite scrolling,” and that display reaction metrics such as “likes” and feature auto-play videos, live-streaming and push notifications. It would exempt websites and apps whose main function is email, messaging, or texting between a particular sender and recipient. Rep. Rayner claimed that the bill is directed at the business practices of the social media sites rather than at the kids who would be most directly affected, and she explained that the bill includes a 90-day grace period during which kids’ content on the sites to be deleted can be downloaded and preserved by the owner. Questioned as to who or what entity would be charged with the responsibility of determining whether a social media website or app met the definition of a prohibited site, Rep. Rayner suggested that it would be the responsibility of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody to make such a determination, noting that she rarely finds herself supporting General Moody in any other legislative priority.
Tsi Smyth pushed back on Rep. Rayner’s claims that the bill is not a “ban” and is designed to affect the business practices of social media companies. They argued that it is parents, not the government, and not the companies who should have the responsibility and the right to control their children’s social media exposure. If the bill is intended to limit children’s exposure to bullying and harassment, it will fail, Smyth suggested, because kids will always find another way to communicate whether it is through video game chat features or on school playgrounds. Smyth also noted that while bullying is real, social media is also often a safe place for some kids where they can find community, interest groups, and information they need to enhance their development and personal identities. They worried that teenagers, whose first exposure to social media under this bill will be at age 16, will not have had the opportunity to develop the skills and emotional resilience to respond to the potentially harmful effects of social media without having had supervision and counseling from their parents and other responsible adults as they aged before being given free access to social media at age 16. Smyth found herself in the extraordinary position of agreeing with Gov. DeSantis who, at a press conference last Thursday, said “Parents need to have a role in this. I do think parents are concerned about social media and what goes on there and I do think it’s a problem. But, I also think that for people that are in high school, it’s not that simple.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis has until Friday, March 1st to decide whether to sign or veto the bill in its current form.
You can listen to our full discussion with Rep. Rayner and Tsi Smyth here, on the WMNF app, or as a WMNF MidPoint podcast from your favorite podcast site.
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