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The Tennessee Conservative [By Rebecca Scott] –
The Tennessee House has voted to accept a Senate amendment to a bill that has been called the “Protecting Children from Social Media Act” and it will now progress toward becoming law.
Previously, the Senate passed a version of the bill that they amended that differed from the version the House had already passed.
In order to align the wording of the bills, the House voted to adopt amendment number 2 from the Senate bill, which passed with 90 Ayes, 2 Nays, and 4 Present but not voting.
Only Democrats voted against adopting the Senate amendment mirroring their votes on the originally passed version of the House bill.
House Bill 1891 (HB1891), sponsored by Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland-District 44), would require social media platforms to gain parental consent in order to allow minors to access those platforms.
The amendment adopted from the companion bill, Senate Bill 2097 (SB2097), sponsored by Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin-District 27), clarifies the definition of a “minor” to be “Known or reasonably believed by a social media platform to be under eighteen (18) years of age,” “Not emancipated,” and “A resident of this state.”
The amendment then clarifies that the legislation would not apply to online shopping venues, sites intended for career opportunities, payment platforms, cloud storage and cloud computing services, or sites that were intended for the receipt of technical support.
Finally, the amendment provides guidelines to social media platforms regarding the verification and parental consent process.
The amended bill is now ready to be signed by the Speakers of both chambers before being transmitted to Governor Lee to be signed into law.
Rebecca Scott is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Rebecca at Rebecca@tennesseeconservativenews.com
