By Brendan Farrington
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) --Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed what would have been one of the most far-reaching social media bans for minors on Friday, and lawmakers are proposing new language that seeks to keep children under under 14 off of addictive platforms.
The bill sent to the governor last week would have banned minors under 16 from popular social media platforms regardless of parental consent. DeSantis had concerns about privacy issues and parental rights, but appears to be on board with a new proposal that would allow 14- and 15-year-olds on social media with parental consent and ban access for younger children.
"The Legislature is about to produce a different, superior bill," DeSantis said in his veto message. "Protecting children from harms associated with social media is important, as is supporting parents' rights and maintaining the ability of adults to engage in anonymous speech."
He said he anticipates signing the new bill, which will go before the Senate on Monday, just days before the legislative session ends March 8.
Lawmakers were expecting the veto and worked with DeSantis on the compromise. The issue is a top priority for Republican House Speaker Paul Renner, who believes social media is causing psychological damage to children.
"My personal view is we ought to go to 18. It is bad. It is poison," Renner said. "Their business model is addiction that causes harm to children for profit. That's not good."
But Renner expressed optimism after the veto and said the new proposal is an improvement to the original bill and will have broader public support.
"It's a good product of compromise," he said. "It will have a better chance of getting through the courts."
Several states have considered similar legislation. In Arkansas, a federal judge blocked enforcement of a law in August that required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts.
Supporters in Florida hope the bill will withstand legal challenges because it would ban social media formats based on addictive features such as notification alerts and autoplay videos, rather than on the content on their sites.
Sony reports healthy profits on strong sales of sensors and games
Sony's profit rose 69% in July-September from a year earlier on the back of strong sales of its image sensors, games, music and network services, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said on Friday.
Quarterly profit was 338.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion), up from 200 billion yen in the year-earlier period, while consolidated quarterly sales edged up 3% year-on-year to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion).
Tokyo-based Sony's latest quarterly results were boosted by healthy demand around the world for image sensors used in mobile products.
Sales also held up in its video games division. During the latest quarter, 3.8 million PlayStation 5 game consoles were sold globally, compared with 4.9 million units sold the same period a year ago.
Demand remained strong for PS5 game software, according to Sony.
The top-selling music releases from Sony for the quarter included "SOS" by SZA, David Gilmour's "Luck and Strange" and Kenshi Yonezu's "Lost Corner."
One area where Sony's business suffered was its pictures division, including TV shows and movies, which was impacted by production delays caused by the strikes in Hollywood.
Among the recent hit films from Sony was "It Ends With Us," a romantic drama based on a novel.
Sony, which also makes digital cameras and TVs, maintained its 980-billion yen ($6.4 billion) profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2025, up 1% from the previous fiscal year.
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