What you need to know about Florida's classroom cellphone bans and a new social media law
By Daylina Miller
January 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM EST
Legal challenges will decide the fate of the state's new ban on social media for kids under 14. Plus, more on how Broward County's cellphone ban during the school day is going.
If you have kids in public school, your district might be one of several in Florida that banned cell phones in classrooms. Florida was the first in the nation to institute such bans.
And now a new law requires social media platforms to ban kids in Florida who are younger than 14.
These laws are meant to address concerns about the effect social media can have on kids' mental health.
Cell phone bans in school
Howard Hepburn, superintendent of Broward County Public Schools, spoke Friday on the Florida Roundup about the impact cell phone bans are having on students. His district took the law a bit further, also banning cell phone use during the entire school day. The policy has been in effect for months now.
"You have teachers saying, ‘hey, students are having deeper conversations now. They're not diving into their pockets or their backpack trying to answer a tweet or a text or something like that. They're more engaged in instruction.’"
The student body in Broward County public schools, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, is about a quarter of a million students. According to data that was shared with their school board, fewer than 1,000 violations of the new policy were found during the fall, making some people question how necessary a ban was in the first place.
Hepburn said it’s likely there were a lot more violations of the policy, but the data shared only included more extreme situations.
“The violations that you would see from our data from the fall would wouldn't be so much about utilizing your cell phone, it's more about probably open defiance. So if you ask a kid to put their cell phone up, and then something else happens, or they may be using the wrong type of language, disrespectful language, to that person or something turns into an aggressive situation that shouldn't have.”
In a survey after the ban, students reported being more stressed.
“I have kids at home … and when we try to take their cell phone or limit their cell phone use for whatever they do, they're going to say they're having a bad day because they don't have their cell phone,” Hepburn said.
Social media ban for kids under 14
A new state law says social media platforms are prohibited from letting a child under 14 in Florida create an account. Social media sites also have to close any accounts that already exist for someone younger than 14 years old.
Toby Overdorf, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, was one of the co-sponsors of the law.
He said the law was proposed and passed to protect kids from pornography likening the age verification to similar requirements for alcohol and firearms.
Most social media sites do already ban or de-prioritize pornography in the algorithm. Some LGBTQ+ activists have claimed this ban is intended to prevent LGBTQ+ children from finding community online that they may not have at school or home.
State lawmakers have likened LGBTQ+ content to pornography in other bills. The state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law’s language lumps together topics of sexual orientation and gender identity with sexual content such as pornography and stripping.
Overdorf said he’s confident that the law will hold up in court, and that it respects parental rights.
“A parent can now make the decision if they would like to have their child, who is 14 or 15, on social media or not, and it also gives the parent the right on the enforcement side directly back to that social media platform.”
Hepburn said that during his educational career, he’s watched students go from no cells phones, to basic flip phones that could only call and text, to today’s smartphones. In that time, he said, he’s seen a lot more cyberbullying and physical altercations between students as a result.
“I'm not going to sit here and say that this is the best course of action … there needs to be a course of action to really take a step back and create an environment where our kids can socialize in a positive manner that's going to be a contributing factor to their ongoing success as an adult.”
The social media ban faces two legal challenges.
Of them argues the law violates the First Amendment rights of minors and adults because the law bans a certain age group and requires age verification by adults before exercising their free speech rights.
State officials said they won't enforce the law prior to a court hearing next month.
This story was compiled off an interview conducted by Tom Hudson for “The Florida Roundup.”
And now a new law requires social media platforms to ban kids in Florida who are younger than 14.
These laws are meant to address concerns about the effect social media can have on kids' mental health.
Cell phone bans in school
Howard Hepburn, superintendent of Broward County Public Schools, spoke Friday on the Florida Roundup about the impact cell phone bans are having on students. His district took the law a bit further, also banning cell phone use during the entire school day. The policy has been in effect for months now.
"You have teachers saying, ‘hey, students are having deeper conversations now. They're not diving into their pockets or their backpack trying to answer a tweet or a text or something like that. They're more engaged in instruction.’"
The student body in Broward County public schools, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, is about a quarter of a million students. According to data that was shared with their school board, fewer than 1,000 violations of the new policy were found during the fall, making some people question how necessary a ban was in the first place.
Hepburn said it’s likely there were a lot more violations of the policy, but the data shared only included more extreme situations.
“The violations that you would see from our data from the fall would wouldn't be so much about utilizing your cell phone, it's more about probably open defiance. So if you ask a kid to put their cell phone up, and then something else happens, or they may be using the wrong type of language, disrespectful language, to that person or something turns into an aggressive situation that shouldn't have.”
In a survey after the ban, students reported being more stressed.
“I have kids at home … and when we try to take their cell phone or limit their cell phone use for whatever they do, they're going to say they're having a bad day because they don't have their cell phone,” Hepburn said.
Social media ban for kids under 14
A new state law says social media platforms are prohibited from letting a child under 14 in Florida create an account. Social media sites also have to close any accounts that already exist for someone younger than 14 years old.
Toby Overdorf, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, was one of the co-sponsors of the law.
He said the law was proposed and passed to protect kids from pornography likening the age verification to similar requirements for alcohol and firearms.
Most social media sites do already ban or de-prioritize pornography in the algorithm. Some LGBTQ+ activists have claimed this ban is intended to prevent LGBTQ+ children from finding community online that they may not have at school or home.
State lawmakers have likened LGBTQ+ content to pornography in other bills. The state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law’s language lumps together topics of sexual orientation and gender identity with sexual content such as pornography and stripping.
Overdorf said he’s confident that the law will hold up in court, and that it respects parental rights.
“A parent can now make the decision if they would like to have their child, who is 14 or 15, on social media or not, and it also gives the parent the right on the enforcement side directly back to that social media platform.”
Hepburn said that during his educational career, he’s watched students go from no cells phones, to basic flip phones that could only call and text, to today’s smartphones. In that time, he said, he’s seen a lot more cyberbullying and physical altercations between students as a result.
“I'm not going to sit here and say that this is the best course of action … there needs to be a course of action to really take a step back and create an environment where our kids can socialize in a positive manner that's going to be a contributing factor to their ongoing success as an adult.”
The social media ban faces two legal challenges.
Of them argues the law violates the First Amendment rights of minors and adults because the law bans a certain age group and requires age verification by adults before exercising their free speech rights.
State officials said they won't enforce the law prior to a court hearing next month.
This story was compiled off an interview conducted by Tom Hudson for “The Florida Roundup.”