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Panel advances Teen Social Media and Internet Safety Act; sponsor cites safety and AI concerns
Summary
The Education Instruction Subcommittee voted to advance House Bill 825, which would direct the Department of Education to create social media, internet safety and AI lesson plans for grades 6–12 and would include a parental opt-out and a prohibition on accessing social media at school.
The Education Instruction Subcommittee voted to send House Bill 825, the Teen Social Media and Internet Safety Act, to the full education committee after a brief discussion of implementation details and curriculum timing.
Representative Mayberry, the bill sponsor, told the committee the measure would ask the Department of Education to create lesson plans on social media, internet safety and artificial intelligence for grades 6 through 12 and said the bill would "make it where you cannot access your social media at school." Mayberry said the proposal grew from experience running an after-school program and concerns about student safety online: "Students by and large do not know safety measures within, the Internet, social media, and, AI... There's so much, harm out there and this bill is gonna address that," Mayberry said.
Representative Johnson questioned where the lessons would be placed in the curriculum and whether teachers would be trained to deliver them. Johnson raised a broader concern that multiple recent bills would add standards without increasing instructional time, saying the changes could "triple the number of standards in that class without adding any time whatsoever." Mayberry responded that the bill text states implementation would begin in "2627," which the sponsor said would give a year to coordinate the work.
On parental controls, Mayberry said parents may opt out: "Yes, so parents will, opt out of this, this education that they decide they do not want, to participate." The committee clerk reported the vote as "5 aye, 0 nay, and 1 present not voting." The committee chair announced that HB 825 received a majority and would be forwarded to the full education committee.
The committee did not record amendments to the bill at the meeting. The discussion focused on where lessons would fit in existing coordinated school health curriculum and on teacher preparation and time allocation; no implementation funding was described on the record.
