Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to ban TikTok from offering its services to minors in Virginia was defeated on Tuesday after Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates opted against scheduling it for a vote.
The bill, HB 1468 by Delegate Jay Leftwich (R-Chesapeake), would have allowed Attorney General Jason Miyares to prohibit TikTok from knowingly allowing minors to use the social media platform in the commonwealth. ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, would have been fined $7,500 per violation for every minor found to be using the site due to the company’s negligence.
Additionally, the bill would have permitted parents to sue ByteDance if their child was found to have accessed TikTok because the company failed to comply with the law, entitling them to a $75,000 payment compensating the family for the company’s damages to the minor.
HB 1468 advanced as far as the House Committee for Courts of Justice on February 5 but was left in the committee without a vote on Tuesday, the “Crossover Day” for the legislative session when all bills that will move forward must be scheduled.
Democrats in the committee, according to Quartz, raised concerns about how the legislation would be enforced and questioned whether the government should step in to tell parents which websites or platforms they should allow children to access.
In reply, Leftwich reportedly cited existing laws that prevent minors from accessing alcohol and other harmful substances, but his arguments failed to secure a place for his bill on the schedule assigned by Delegate Patrick Hope (D-Arlington).
Youngkin originally announced legislation targeting TikTok and other social media companies in December 2023 when the governor unveiled his budget and outlined plans for the next two years.
“I will introduce legislation to restrict youth access, those under 18, to TikTok. Full stop, we will introduce the bill,” Youngkin pledged before the Virginia General Assembly.
Democrats also defeated bills announced by Youngkin during the same December 2023 event, which aimed to regulate how social media companies could offer their services to children and what data they could gather.
Youngkin previously banned the use of TikTok on devices owned in Virginia or connected to any wireless network provided by the commonwealth in 2022. In April 2023, the Virginia General Assembly voted to make the ban permanent, and the Chinese-owned social media website has been prohibited on state devices by Virginia law since July 2023.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
