Will DeSantis sign Florida social media bill that takes parental rights away? | Opinion

What now? That’s a question in Florida’s Capitol this week after Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his campaign for the White House and endorsed Donald Trump. His withdrawal came six days after he had reassured supporters that Iowans had “punched his ticket” to continue his campaign.

DeSantis’s political demise — finishing a distant second to Trump — was the most noteworthy crash and burn in the Hawkeye State since February 3, 1959, when the plane carrying musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J. P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson went down in cornfield near Mason City, killing all aboard.

That was famously “the day the music died. ” January 19, 2024, was the day DeSantis’ campaign died. The humiliating loss has naturally led to speculation about his political future as a lame-duck governor.

Will DeSantis now focus on his day job as Florida’s governor? He has three years left in which to solidify his status as one of Florida’s more impactful leaders, for good or ill, on issues related to public health, education, crime and immigration.

To burnish his record, DeSantis now needs to deal with festering problems such as the high cost of housing and insurance, as well as the environmental impact of the state’s rapid growth and climate change.

Will DeSantis focus on solving those problems or double-down on his war against “woke”? In Iowa he had emphasized his role as a culture-war commander, but voters weren’t buying what he was selling.

A key early test for DeSantis will come when House Bill 1 reaches his desk. The top priority for House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, it would bar kids under the age of 16 from accessing social media.

This would be an annoyance for all current users of social media because, as the ACLU of Florida points out, the bill “stifles freedom of expression online by requiring all users, including adults, to verify their age by providing a photo ID or other age-verification documentation before using existing social media accounts or opening new ones.”

But for DeSantis, here’s the sticky issue, as noted by the ACLU: The bill “prohibits minors under 16 from creating social media accounts on certain platforms and deletes any existing accounts, regardless of whether a minor’s parent consents to their children using such platforms.”

A portion of DeSantis’s political rise can be attributed to a political earthquake in Virginia. In 2021, that solid blue state, where Joe Biden had garnered 54.1% of the votes the previous year, elected a Republican governor.

Glenn Youngkin’s surprise win came after the Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, said during a debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Noticing that championing parents’ rights was a popular stance, DeSantis pushed that issue. In March of 2022, he signed the “Parental Rights in Education Bill,” which critics immediately dubbed the “Don’t say gay” bill.

In 2023, DeSantis followed up, expanding the ban on sex-related content from K-3 to K-12. This emboldened groups of parents to demand the removal of hundreds of books from classrooms and school libraries, regardless of what other parents might think. Now comes legislation that would deny parents’ rights to decide whether their own kids may access social media.

Granted, there’s no doubt that the excessive use of social media by children and adolescents can cause problems, as discussed in a 2023 advisory from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

In the end, however, here’s the key question. DeSantis positions himself as a champion of parental rights. Will he sign a bill that takes away parents’ right to decide on an issue that often looms large in their kids’ lives? It’s anyone’s guess.

Robert F. Sanchez, of Tallahassee, is a former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. He writes for the Herald’s conservative opinion newsletter, Right to the Point.