South Carolina’s House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday advanced a pair of age-verification bills to the floor (see 2401180027). Both bills passed the committee unanimously with a handful of members not voting. H-4700, which would require parental consent for minors younger than 18 to access social media, passed 21-0-4. H-3424, meant to keep kids off pornographic websites, passed 20-0-5.
Seth Arenstein
Seth Arenstein, Copy Editor, joined Warren Communications News in November 2023 following 30 years in journalism, including as Editorial Director of CableFAX Daily, Editor of Cable World Magazine, White House Bureau Chief of Defense Daily, Editor of PRNEWS and Assistant VP at AccessIntelligence, LLC. Seth has edited books in genres including fiction, health/exercise, history and comedy. He plays trumpet in the Washington Conservatory of Music Orchestra and produces an annual awards gala at the Kennedy Center honoring Washington-area high school performing artists. Seth earned his M.A. in international economics and defense policy from the Paul Nitze School of the Johns Hopkins University and a B.A., Magna Cum Laude, from Brandeis University. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Follow Seth on X at @brahmsandmahler and Seth@prfollower or LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-arenstein-2a11536/
CTIA raised concerns about the FCC's draft robotexting order during a series of meetings with commissioner aides. The order is set for a vote Dec. 13. “CTIA expressed significant concern that key aspects of the Draft Second Robotext Order reflect an effort to import solutions from the robocall playbook which, while developed to meet the needs of voice services, are ill-suited and unnecessary to address robotexts,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 02-278: “CTIA explained that the problems, policy landscape, and available tools are different -- as are the solutions.” The outreach was consistent with the group's past comments (see 2309200067). “Unlike in the robocalls context, where clear guidance and direction from the FCC was necessary to clarify voice service providers’ authority to block illegal robocalls and now requires that they do so, wireless providers and their messaging partners do not need such direction because text messaging is an information service and wireless providers leverage that flexibility to the benefit of consumers,” CTIA said. CTIA representatives met with aides to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks.