miami – Florida bill banning social media use by minors heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk. This is the strictest regulation in the country for children under the age of 16.
Families discussed the dangers of social media during a town hall at Miami Killian High School Thursday night.
Orlando Valdez shared his family’s journey through the social media nightmare as a learning experience for parents and children listening in the crowd. His son was arrested and expelled from school in 2019 for a single social media post.
“The first thing you want to do is grab your child and hold him,” the boy’s mother, Kim Valdez, who was a teenager at the time, told the audience.
She remembers the photo shown to the audience and the long hug her son had the day he was arrested.
She and her husband, Orlando, relived the painful experience. They spoke at City Hall about the dangers and consequences of following social media trends.
“The reason we do such a great job of putting guardrails on the roads is because we know the bends that are coming,” Orlando Valdez said. “Kids don’t realize the twists and turns at the end of the information superhighway.”
Back in 2019, my then 16-year-old son Austin posted on TikTok. Video played at City Hall. The former Columbus High School student posted a video accompanied by gunshots. They then made a shooting motion toward each school name. The school name will then disappear from the screen.
“It was embarrassing,” Orlando Valdez recalled. “I was appalled that they represented the community of schools and children we prayed for.”
His father recalled within 24 hours of the post. His son was arrested, removed from school, and questioned by Homeland Security. The criminal charges were eventually dropped.
“I told him GD won’t let us down,” Valdez said. “GD was going to be with me no matter what happened. He remembers me telling him when I was in the interrogation room.”
In the days since, Valdez has watched her son change and become a positive inspiration to other children.
“Now he can talk to different kids and make them realize how childish it is to chase likes,” Valdez added.
Valdez supports the Tallahassee Legislature’s efforts to ban children under 16 from social media platforms after what he did to his son.
“Children should not be posting on the internet,” Valdez added. “That’s where they can get into the most trouble. We had to experience that firsthand.”
The governor did not commit to signing the bill at a press conference Thursday, adding that parents need to play a role.
“I can’t say it’s 100% bad usage, because it really isn’t,” DeSantis said. “I don’t think we’re there yet, but we hope we can get there in a way that addresses the concerns of parents.”
As for Austin, Valdez said he now works as a photographer, taking photos of athletes competing between the lines while sharing positive feedback on social media.
Valdez hopes to help parents and children talk openly about social media with each other.