Why do the republicans hate young people on social media? Because it exposes them to ideas that are now banned in Florida schools. It is about information control, it is about indoctrination to a conservative mindset / ideology. Think of it, even though the republicans managed to remove all reading material from schools about LGBTQIA people so LGBTQIA kids won’t see themselves represented and other students won’t see that the LGBTQIA kids are as normal as they are, young people can still see it on social media where the stars they love tell them that it is OK to be different. Plus social media clearly shows how wrong and backwards the Republican Party is, and how out of touch a minority the fundamentalist Christians are. Then you have the times that social media influences older teens to vote progressive / democrat, not regressive conservative like the state wants them to do. Social media also makes republicans and maga look as stupid as they are, mocking them, and showing young people out of touch with the modern times the fundamentalist Christian republicans are. Hugs. Scottie
Florida Politics reports:
Language for a new social media bill with provisions for parental consent has been filed in the Senate. The move came after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed an all-out ban on those under 16 using most social media platforms.
Sen. Erin Grall, a Fort Pierce Republican, filed an amendment with new language negotiated with the House, Senate and Governor’s Office. The legislation includes exemptions for 14- and 15-year-olds to open accounts on any platform so long as they have a parent’s permission.
“A social media platform shall prohibit a minor who is 14 or 15 years of age from entering into a contract with a social media platform to become an account holder, unless the minor’s parent or guardian provides consent for the minor to become an account holder,” the amendment states.
Read the full article. The bill vetoed yesterday by DeSantis would have banned all minors under age 16 from having a social media account.
The FL legislature somehow thinks kids 16 and under are mature enough to have children when raped or molested but somehow not mature enough to use social media.
That’s how stupid all of this is
FL ledge DESPERATLY needs to find a way to keep queer kids from seeing positive messaging about themselves. They have seen the stats that 25% of Gen Z identify as something other than straight/cis. They are freaking out that Gen Alpha (yeah I had to look that one up but don’t you dare OK Boomer me) is going to follow the same curve. I for one welcome the rest of our rainbow plenty of bisexuals out there and now they are not afraid to be counted.
Not sure that is the crux of why they are pushing for this
This is 100% the reason they want to stop young people from using the internet. I don’t remember seeing my first rainbow flag until I was 18. Up until that point, I thought there was something wrong with me. And as a result, I was politically neutral, and not fiercely anti-conservative at the time.
They seem to think 11 year olds know nothing about the internet. Facebook has long had an age requirement, and I’ve known children as young as 11 who have had accounts. The kids figure it out quickly.
I guarantee you they’re also on Instachat and Snapgram and Trick Tock and whatever else folks use. And this bill won’t change that.
Perhaps it’s just another way to quickly create a whole new juvenile criminal class. I wonder what the consequences are, and if the parents will be held responsible for their little criminals.
Sentenced to work 2 years at a fast food joint, or a slaughterhouse?
“Are you 16 or older? – Yes/No”
yep, ban social media but don’t you dare say a word about gun laws and gun control…
Oh, they’re looking to repeal the law they passed after the Parkland massacre.
Without guns, what the hell is going to shoot our kids? geez…
The party of small government certainly likes big government controls.
and who will police the social media police?
The same platoon of inbred hicks that Rhonda assembled to protect the peninsula from the existential threat that is The Bahamas.
Just think of the new 18-year-old voters who now won’t vote for you in November.
I was just thinking about that. Is the 16-year-old cutoff meant to protect them from teenagers’ wrath? There won’t be any current 16-year-olds voting in 2024.
Children have long memories when it comes to blocking them from interaction with their peers whose parents have given permission to have social media accounts. Denied an account, they would be relegated to a lower social order in their school and school community.
So all the talk about small govt was just a ruse to get the Freedumb morons to vote for them////
Isn’t this a decision best left between parent and child? Does it really need legislation? Perhaps a law mandating making one’s bed before school should happen?
Translation – “We’re raising our kids just fine… it’s the way you’re raising your kids that we need to regulate”
Scottie's Playtime 
Back in the 1960s in China will would have been part of the Cultural Revolution.
Read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
Does its principals and methods sound familiar…..?
Of the irony
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Hi Roger. Sadly it does. But history is wasted on this country right now. Most of the republicans believe that reality is what they want it to be regardless of facts, history, or science. If this was a movie script it would have been rejected as too stupid to be believable. For a while I thought we could win over them, but Biden being such a die hard Zionist that he is giving in to Israel on everything … a lot of people that we need to vote now won’t vote for him. Hugs. Scottie
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The tragedy of not voting for Biden Scottie is a very stark one.
If Biden is not voted in then who is?
A convicted felon?
And behind him, folk who think he was sent by Jesus????????
The same folk who unconditionally support the extremist government of Israel.
The same folk who would work up hate on minorities and limit what children can read?
How does that help Palestinians?
Unless Humanity evolves a better system of government, across the entire world, we will continue to be faced with these uncomfortable and unpleasant choices.
Take care both of you.
Roger & Sheila.
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Hi Roger. I read a Sci-Fi book years ago about a planet where corporations have taken over the private sector and trying to take over the government. What the public doesn’t know is the leaders chosen are out of the best, most emphatic, and caring people who then get digitalized and reside as unknown entitles of consciousness for more than the normal lifespan. So those from 300 years ago are still working with the newest ones selected this term. It leads to a government working for the people and against the corporations, which is why the corporations had banded together to try to stop the hero from saving the newest ones selected.
The first one I read was Catspaw, then I read the sequel. I just looked it up and it seems there are a bunch more in the series. I was a young guy just out of school and in the military and I loved them. Maybe as an adult I might not like them as much but the struggles the boy went through seemed so much like mine in some ways I could relate to it. Hugs. Scottie
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There are books Scottie which when you read in your youth never leave you.
It is a paradox that although that sense of wonder or insight never leaves you, when you revisit the book the feelings might not be the same.
The important factor is the impression it left on you then and the memory, which stays fresh.
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For a bunch of parents’s rights advocates, they sure don’t want to just take care of their own damn kids and keep them safe on their own devices, now do they? They think the government should do it? Yet they don’t co-parent with the government? Cognitive dissonance much? It makes my head explode.
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Hello Ali. Yes, they not only want to set rules for their kids, but everyone’s children. They want parental rights for themselves but only for people who think like them, maga parents. No parental rights for progressive parents, parents who support their gay, trans, or any of the LGBTQIA children. But it was never about protecting or guiding kids, it is about ruling / controlling others. It is about wanting only people like them visible in society. It is about creating / returning to a time when society reflected only them and their views. Hugs. Scottie
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