Clearwater parent Dulce Gonzalez remembers the alarm she felt when she realized her daughter, a pre-teen at the time, seemed addicted to social media, a path she believed was leading the girl toward harm.
She compared it to being hooked on crystal meth.
“I had just gone through a divorce and had to put my kids in public school,” Gonzalez told The Epoch Times. “That’s when I caught [my daughter], who was 12, talking to a 20-year-old man on Discord” an online chat platform.
Protecting children from harmful social media interactions is the aim of SB52, a bipartisan bill introduced in the Florida Legislature by state Sen. Danny Burgess, a Republican from Zephyrhills.
The bill would require public schools to teach about “social media safety,” and would require the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) to provide local school boards with materials about keeping children safe when using social media.
The school boards would be required to make parents aware of the materials.
The logo of YouTube social media displayed by a tablet in Toulouse, France, on Oct. 5, 2021. Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
It’s instruction parents need, Gonzalez said.
Her daughter was “sending her address to random adult males who were asking if she needs help” with solo sex acts.
“She was going on ‘depressive sites’ where people were talking about cutting their friends’ names into their legs. So she started cutting herself. People talk on those sites about using sex as a form of self-harm.
“When I saw this, I flipped. I took away all her internet access.”
A Positive Change
When she took away her daughter’s access to social media, the child’s demeanor changed completely, and for the better, Gonzalez said.
“It was a complete 180-[degree] turnaround,” she said. Once again, the child “would come out of her room laughing and starting discussions. She stopped neglecting her hygiene.”
The improvement lasted two months, while she was free of social media.
But sadly, Gonzalez said, “she is back to her old self” playing online virtual reality (VR) games.
“It’s no different from being a drug addict. They need that dopamine hit.”
Indeed, social media platforms are designed to be addictive, research shows. And Florida’s Republican governor also is taking action to try to protect children from it.
On Feb. 15, Gov. Ron DeSantis held a press conference in West Palm Beach announcing a proposal for a Digital Bill of Rights focused on protecting Floridians’ privacy from Big Tech companies, “protecting minors from online harms, and eliminating unfair censorship.”
He’s asking state lawmakers to pass legislation that would “ban the use of TikTok and other social media platforms with ties to China from all state government devices, and through internet services at colleges, universities, and public schools, and prohibits state and local government employees from coordinating with Big Tech companies to censor protected speech.”
“This is, of course, part of a larger effort that we’ve done to support parents’ rights in the state of Florida and we are going to continue to do that,” DeSantis told reporters.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks after being sworn in to begin his second term during an inauguration ceremony outside the Old Capitol in Tallahassee, Fla. on Jan. 3, 2023. Lynne Sladky/AP Photo
Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle already are joining in that mission.
“We have to protect our children from predators and human traffickers that use social media to harm children,” state Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Democrat from Tamarac, told The Epoch Times in a written statement.
“I am proud to be a co-sponsor of this nonpartisan effort to protect our children.”
Just south of the governor’s appearance, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the School Board of Broward County voted on the same day to join a class action, district-wide lawsuit against Facebook, TikTok, Snap Chat, YouTube, and other social media companies.
“This needs to be done,” board member Brenda Fam, who voted “yes” on the motion, told The Epoch Times. “The children and the parents are going to be vindicated.”
Fam listed grave reasons for supporting the lawsuit: declining mental health among students, student suicides, and damage to school property blamed on TikTok “challenges.”
Broward County will be the flagship for lawsuit, which has yet to be filed, and she hopes other districts will join, she said.
Broward County Public Schools has retained the Law Firm of Robbins, Seller, Rudman, and Dowd.
Promoting ‘Social Media Safety’
SB 52 will require the state to provide “age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction on social media safety” for students in grades 6–12, and “focus on the social, emotional, and physical effects of social media and promote best practices in digital citizenship.”
“Digital media can be a very powerful tool, especially for students to communicate, collaborate, and exercise their First Amendment rights to have their voices heard,” Joe Phillips, chief information officer for Broward County Public Schools, wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“This is especially true when students feel the need to communicate and show others about the challenges and issues that they are facing in their world.”
“However, digital media can also be riddled with very dangerous and slippery slopes that even adults have a difficult time navigating.
“There are deliberately addictive algorithms that have been shown to impact children’s mental and physical health negatively.
“There are also concerns with peer pressure, cyberbullying, online predator risk, loss of data ownership and privacy, and identity theft, along with several other slopes.”
Joe Phillips, chief information officer for Broward County Public Schools, and his wife have closely monitored their five sons' online activities in an effort to keep them safe. Courtesy of Joe Phillips
Phillips is the father of five sons. He didn’t let any of his children use phones until they were in 6th grade. And he won’t allow them on social media unsupervised until they’re 18, he said.
“My wife and I also use a graduated system of phone freedom, similar to the graduated driver’s license idea. They are able to have more applications installed as they age and show that they are understanding how to use them responsibly.
“We teach them about the advantages and the dangers, and they know that the phone we provide for them is not ’theirs’ and they do not have any expectation of privacy on them from us, as parents,” Phillips wrote.
“We also use monitoring applications such as Bark,” and engineer phone settings so that applications must be approved by a parent before download, Phillips said. And he and his wife “do regular inspections of” their children’s devices.
Phillips says Burgess’s bill should be tweaked.
“The term ’social media‘ may be too narrow, and it may be better to use the term ’digital media,'” he wrote.
“This term would encompass a wider range of communication and media technologies, including any software, platform, or application in which media is created, distributed, and consumed through digital channels. This may be a better term to ‘future-proof’ the bill a bit better.”
Hunter Pollack—a law student whose sister was killed five years ago in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland—grew up with social media and talked about its positive aspects.
People attend a spiritual service in Pine Trails Park with leaders of several faiths in tribute to the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2020. Leila Macor/AFP via Getty Images
“When March for Our Lives shunned me and would not let me speak at their rally, I was able to take to Facebook to get my message out,” Pollack said.
Still, “kids need to be careful about what they post because it can come back to haunt you later in life,” he said.
Burgess’s bill also bans social media on school-owned devices. But it will not prevent students from using cell phones during classes.
“When they are in class, it’s [only] 15 minutes before the kids are zoned out on their phones,” Gonzalez said. “If a teacher tries to take it away, the kid complains to their parents, and the parents call the school angry.”
Gonzalez would like to see homework assignments sent home that focus on safe social media use.
“The kids need to be taught, but so do the parents,” said Gonzalez. “We did not grow up with this stuff.”
That’s another way the bill can help, Osgood said.
Educating students and parents will help them “understand the pitfalls of certain platforms and how to use social media safely,” she said.
DeSantis has voiced support for limiting or banning the use of cell phones in a class entirely.
“Why are these students on their phones during class all the time?” DeSantis asked rhetorically during a press conference on Jan. 23. “They should not be always on their phones, being distracted from the lessons.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Burgess’s office but didn’t receive a response.
Florida Lawmakers Hope to Curb Social Media Harms Through Education
Clearwater parent Dulce Gonzalez remembers the alarm she felt when she realized her daughter, a pre-teen at the time, seemed addicted to social media, a path she believed was leading the girl toward harm.
She compared it to being hooked on crystal meth.
“I had just gone through a divorce and had to put my kids in public school,” Gonzalez told The Epoch Times. “That’s when I caught [my daughter], who was 12, talking to a 20-year-old man on Discord” an online chat platform.
The bill would require public schools to teach about “social media safety,” and would require the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) to provide local school boards with materials about keeping children safe when using social media.
The school boards would be required to make parents aware of the materials.
It’s instruction parents need, Gonzalez said.
Her daughter was “sending her address to random adult males who were asking if she needs help” with solo sex acts.
“She was going on ‘depressive sites’ where people were talking about cutting their friends’ names into their legs. So she started cutting herself. People talk on those sites about using sex as a form of self-harm.
A Positive Change
When she took away her daughter’s access to social media, the child’s demeanor changed completely, and for the better, Gonzalez said.“It was a complete 180-[degree] turnaround,” she said. Once again, the child “would come out of her room laughing and starting discussions. She stopped neglecting her hygiene.”
The improvement lasted two months, while she was free of social media.
But sadly, Gonzalez said, “she is back to her old self” playing online virtual reality (VR) games.
“It’s no different from being a drug addict. They need that dopamine hit.”
He’s asking state lawmakers to pass legislation that would “ban the use of TikTok and other social media platforms with ties to China from all state government devices, and through internet services at colleges, universities, and public schools, and prohibits state and local government employees from coordinating with Big Tech companies to censor protected speech.”
“This is, of course, part of a larger effort that we’ve done to support parents’ rights in the state of Florida and we are going to continue to do that,” DeSantis told reporters.
Lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle already are joining in that mission.
“We have to protect our children from predators and human traffickers that use social media to harm children,” state Sen. Rosalind Osgood, a Democrat from Tamarac, told The Epoch Times in a written statement.
“I am proud to be a co-sponsor of this nonpartisan effort to protect our children.”
Just south of the governor’s appearance, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, the School Board of Broward County voted on the same day to join a class action, district-wide lawsuit against Facebook, TikTok, Snap Chat, YouTube, and other social media companies.
“This needs to be done,” board member Brenda Fam, who voted “yes” on the motion, told The Epoch Times. “The children and the parents are going to be vindicated.”
Fam listed grave reasons for supporting the lawsuit: declining mental health among students, student suicides, and damage to school property blamed on TikTok “challenges.”
Broward County will be the flagship for lawsuit, which has yet to be filed, and she hopes other districts will join, she said.
Promoting ‘Social Media Safety’
SB 52 will require the state to provide “age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction on social media safety” for students in grades 6–12, and “focus on the social, emotional, and physical effects of social media and promote best practices in digital citizenship.”“Digital media can be a very powerful tool, especially for students to communicate, collaborate, and exercise their First Amendment rights to have their voices heard,” Joe Phillips, chief information officer for Broward County Public Schools, wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“This is especially true when students feel the need to communicate and show others about the challenges and issues that they are facing in their world.”
“However, digital media can also be riddled with very dangerous and slippery slopes that even adults have a difficult time navigating.
“There are deliberately addictive algorithms that have been shown to impact children’s mental and physical health negatively.
“There are also concerns with peer pressure, cyberbullying, online predator risk, loss of data ownership and privacy, and identity theft, along with several other slopes.”
Phillips is the father of five sons. He didn’t let any of his children use phones until they were in 6th grade. And he won’t allow them on social media unsupervised until they’re 18, he said.
“My wife and I also use a graduated system of phone freedom, similar to the graduated driver’s license idea. They are able to have more applications installed as they age and show that they are understanding how to use them responsibly.
“We teach them about the advantages and the dangers, and they know that the phone we provide for them is not ’theirs’ and they do not have any expectation of privacy on them from us, as parents,” Phillips wrote.
“We also use monitoring applications such as Bark,” and engineer phone settings so that applications must be approved by a parent before download, Phillips said. And he and his wife “do regular inspections of” their children’s devices.
Phillips says Burgess’s bill should be tweaked.
“The term ’social media‘ may be too narrow, and it may be better to use the term ’digital media,'” he wrote.
“This term would encompass a wider range of communication and media technologies, including any software, platform, or application in which media is created, distributed, and consumed through digital channels. This may be a better term to ‘future-proof’ the bill a bit better.”
Hunter Pollack—a law student whose sister was killed five years ago in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland—grew up with social media and talked about its positive aspects.
“When March for Our Lives shunned me and would not let me speak at their rally, I was able to take to Facebook to get my message out,” Pollack said.
Still, “kids need to be careful about what they post because it can come back to haunt you later in life,” he said.
Burgess’s bill also bans social media on school-owned devices. But it will not prevent students from using cell phones during classes.
“When they are in class, it’s [only] 15 minutes before the kids are zoned out on their phones,” Gonzalez said. “If a teacher tries to take it away, the kid complains to their parents, and the parents call the school angry.”
Gonzalez would like to see homework assignments sent home that focus on safe social media use.
“The kids need to be taught, but so do the parents,” said Gonzalez. “We did not grow up with this stuff.”
That’s another way the bill can help, Osgood said.
Educating students and parents will help them “understand the pitfalls of certain platforms and how to use social media safely,” she said.
DeSantis has voiced support for limiting or banning the use of cell phones in a class entirely.
“Why are these students on their phones during class all the time?” DeSantis asked rhetorically during a press conference on Jan. 23. “They should not be always on their phones, being distracted from the lessons.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Burgess’s office but didn’t receive a response.
Proposed Florida Law Would Make Antisemitic Activity Punishable With Prison
Families of Patients Lost To COVID-19 Pressuring Florida Hospital, State Lawmakers for Answers
Florida Mayor Vows to ‘Push Back’ Against DeSantis’s Stop WOKE Act
Florida Surgeon General Warns Life-Threatening VAERS Reports up 4,400 Percent Since COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout