Indiana lawmakers may address social media legislation next year, Senate Commerce Committee members said at a livestreamed hearing Thursday. The panel heard testimony but didn’t vote on SB-201, which would require that social media companies verify a user's age and obtain parental consent before a minor can open accounts. Also, the bill would require smartphone makers to activate content filters by default for minors. Sponsor Sen. Spencer Deery (R) hopes to continue the conversation and “find something that we can come back next year with … that will enter Indiana into this space,” he said as the hearing wrapped. Likewise, Committee Chair Brian Buchanan (R) said “this is something I want to continue discussion on and possibly bring back next year.” Buchanan seeks a balance between keeping kids safe and maintaining parental rights, he said. Content filter mandates and social media restrictions for minors are unconstitutional, Edward Longe, director-technology and innovation for free-market think tank James Madison Institute, argued. "Content filters represent a one-size-fits-all government solution to a problem that has already been resolved by the market,” he said. “There is no age restriction to the First Amendment.” Rather than restrict minors, it’s better to require online media literacy training, as in a 2023 Florida law, he told the committee. Longe didn’t mention that Florida House members Wednesday passed a bill restricting children younger than 16 from using social media regardless of parental consent (see 2401240079). Deery doesn’t want Indiana to ban kids from social media but rather give parents power to consent, said the Republican: Literacy training alone won’t cut it. The Computer & Communications Industry Association opposed SB-201 in written testimony. “While CCIA strongly supports the overall goal of keeping children safe online, requiring a state-specific default filter is technologically infeasible and would create unobtainable expectations with regard to content that filters can reasonably block.”

Florida House members unanimously approved a bill requiring age verification for pornography websites. Lawmakers voted 119-0 Wednesday to send HB-3 to the Senate. House members supported the bill in committee hearings (see 2401170061 and 2401110044). Earlier Wednesday, Florida's House passed a bill (HB-1) restricting children younger than 16 from using social media regardless of parental consent (see 2401240079). The Computer & Communications Industry Association condemned HB-1 after the vote. “Legislation like this violates federal law and positions the government to block access to legal information online -- a Constitutional right even younger users do have,” said CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender.

South Dakota could increase a 911 fee on monthly phone bllls to $2, from $1.25. The House Taxation Committee voted 9-4 for HB-1092 on Tuesday. The bill would clarify that revenue from the fee “must” be used for 911.

The Florida House supported removing kids younger than 16 from social media platforms in a 106-13 bipartisan vote Wednesday. Lawmakers approved HB-1 one day after rejecting an amendment that would have allowed parents to choose whether their children may use social media (see 2401230078). The bill now goes to the Senate. If the upper chamber approves it and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs it, social media companies would need to terminate kids’ accounts July 1. "These companies know what they are doing is wrong,” said sponsor Rep. Tyler Sirois (R). “They have not acted … In Florida, we will.” The state government must step in to protect children from online threats, bullying and crime, agreed co-sponsor Rep. Fiona McFarland (R): Companies won’t self-police and the federal government isn’t acting. Most of the House’s 36 Democrats voted for HB-1, though several raised concerns in floor debate. Judiciary Committee ranking member Michael Gottlieb (D) doesn't oppose regulating social media but dislikes HB-1’s “very broad brush,” he said. "What we're saying is essentially that kids don't have the right to assemble," which the First Amendment protects. "When we take that from somebody" it must be through the "least restrictive means,” said Gottlieb. Rep. Daryl Campbell (D) said the bill’s intent “sounds good,” but it’s “complete governmental overreach” to tell parents they’re not fit to make the best decision for their children. Saying the bill is unconstitutional, Rep. Ashley Gantt (D) asked when Florida will stop telling parents that lawmakers know better. But Democrat Rep. Michele Rayner asked how lawmakers can tell parents that the First Amendment is more important than their child’s life. Rep. Kevin Chambless (D) said that "for every success story" on social media, there is "a negative story of exploitation." Rep. Katherine Waldron (D) said that while HB-1 “may not be popular among those 16 or under -- or perhaps among some parents -- the positives will far outweigh the negatives.”

The Washington state House Innovation Committee heard testimony Tuesday on broadband legislation, HB 2313. The bill assigns additional duties to the state Office of Equity, said Emily Pool, a committee staffer. The office “is tasked with continuing to develop and also maintain the state equity plan, and the office must also undertake the outreach effort” being conducted by the Statewide Broadband Office, Pool said. This includes assisting consumers and enrolling them in broadband and digital equity programs, she said. Rep. Mia Gregerson (D), who sponsored the bill, said she was focused on digital equity since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill updates the state’s initial broadband equity act, Gregerson said. “With anything as big as this you always really need to come back and have that time to understand what has happened" and “how far have we come forward,” she said. Most testimony supported approval of the legislation.

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.

Nebraska will expand a Windstream 911 probe to include a January outage and outages occurring while docket 911-076 is open, the Nebraska Public Service Commission decided 5-0 Tuesday. “The Commission is concerned with what appears to be a growing pattern of repeated 911 outages on Windstream’s network affecting southeast Nebraska” public safety answering points, said the PSC order, which noted that three outages occurred during a five-month period. Also, commissioners unanimously supported a precision agriculture order setting a process for states grants (docket C-5529). The PSC will make more than $906,000 available for the 2023-2024 fiscal year starting July 1, with half the money for connectivity and the rest for devices and technology, it said. The PSC will run annual grant cycles with awards on or before June 30 each year, the order said. For the 2024 cycle, applications are due Feb. 23 and awards will be released by April 30, it said. "The grant program is another opportunity to advance precision agriculture in our state with much-needed connectivity and supporting technology,” said Nebraska PSC Chair Dan Watermeier. “We look forward to seeing the innovative projects submitted through the application process.” Also, the commission voted 5-0 for a TRS order to open docket C-5555 and hold a hearing March 19 at 1:30 p.m. CDT to determine the surcharge for the fiscal year starting July 1. Windstream experienced a 52-minute evening outage Jan. 13 in southeast Nebraska due to "two unrelated but overlapping network events," a spokesperson wrote in an email. "First, there was a fiber cut between Lincoln and Denver that took down one of our two network paths into and out of Nebraska." That damage didn't cause an outage, but before the telco could repair it, an unrelated event between Lincoln and Chicago "took down our second network path into and out of the state," the spokesperson said. "Service [was] restored when the fiber cut on the Lincoln-Denver path was repaired."

New York's Senate could vote again soon on a wireless tower bill that would require cellphone companies and third-party infrastructure firms to submit plans for powering their towers with 100% renewable energy by 2031. The Senate Telecom Committee cleared S-4305 at a livestreamed hearing Tuesday. Ranking member Mario Mattera (R) voted no. Senators approved the bill last year (see 2303220031), but New York's Assembly never addressed it, so S-4305 returned to the Senate.

The Florida Senate Commerce Committee unanimously supported a bill to extend dollar broadband attachments through 2028. Tuesday's committee OK means the full Senate could soon vote on SB-1218, which would extend a promotional rate that the state began offering in 2021 to let ISPs pay $1 a year per wireline attachment per pole to bring broadband to unserved or underserved areas in municipal electric utility service territories. The promo will expire July 1 unless extended. A House subcommittee cleared a similar bill (HB-1147) last week (see 2401190064).

Five states rely too much on fiber in their broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program plans, Wireless ISP Association CEO David Zumwalt said Tuesday in a letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. California, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and New York will likely exhaust BEAD funds before connecting all unserved and underserved locations, warned Zumwalt: NTIA should direct the states to alter their proposals before the federal agency approves them. More than a dozen other state plans indicate they may lack money for non-deployment activities including digital equity projects, the wireless industry group’s CEO added: States could address the funding gap by deploying fixed wireless networks and setting an “appropriately low” extremely high cost per location threshold. Also, Zumwalt raised concerns with states that require up to five years of audited financial statements before applying for funds, “a gating criteria that will foreclose participation by many smaller broadband providers.”