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States Alter Course on Data Center Tax Breaks Virginia has become the latest state to pass legislation changing its stance on data center tax incentives in the face of growing opposition to the facilities...
DE Legislature Passes Ban on ‘Captive Audience’ Meetings Delaware lawmakers passed a bill ( HB 84 ) that would prohibit employers from requiring employees to attend “captive audience”...
As in every part of society it touches, artificial intelligence is changing hiring practices—and state legislators are concerned about the implications. Consider two aspects of AI in labor that...
Banking Law Updates Nearing Enactment in DE A package of bills ( SB 16 , SB 18 and SB 19 ) modernizing Delaware’s banking laws is nearing enactment in the First State. Introduced by Sen. Spiros...
PA House Passes AI in Advertising Bill Pennsylvania’s House passed a bill ( HB 95 ) that would require companies to disclose when they use artificial intelligence in advertisements. Violators would...
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A federal judge issued an injunction permanently blocking an Ohio law that requires parental consent for those under the age of 16 to have a social media account.
Although U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley praised the state for seeking to protect minors from harm, he said the Ohio law, enacted in 2023, violated the First Amendment. He compared it to a law passed in California in 2005 banning the sale of violent video games to kids, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down on the grounds that states don’t have “a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.”
An Arkansas law that is similar to the Ohio one was permanently enjoined in March. Both laws had already been temporarily blocked.
Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Utah have also passed social media parental consent laws, according to NetChoice, the tech trade group that challenged the Arkansas and Ohio laws.
But the legal setbacks don’t appear to be deterring state lawmakers on the issue. Since the ruling on the Arkansas law, state lawmakers there have passed legislation that would lower the age for parental consent for social media access from 18 to 16 (SB 611) and grant parents the right to sue social media companies for contributing to their child’s suicide or attempted suicide (SB 612). (PLURIBUS NEWS)
—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK
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