ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Two bills proposed by Florida lawmakers on banning TikTok in K-12 schools were passed on Tuesday by the state's Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee.
The bills will require state school districts to prevent and not allow students from using social media through the internet access provided by each district, the Department of Financial Services said in a news release.
The bills passed also call for courses within schools to teach students about social media safety and how to use it properly in their personal and professional lives.
“A huge thank you to Senator Danny Burgess for spearheading this critical legislation and ensuring our students and schools remain safe from the dangers TikTok presents," the department's Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said in a statement. "Children are the future, so we need to work together to do everything we can to protect them and set them up for success.”
Florida lawmakers initially announced their support of the two bills on Feb. 1.
TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is Chinese-owned. U.S. officials in the past have warned the Chinese government could force the company to share user data, according to CBS News.
Michael Beckerman, TikTok's head of public policy for the Americas, told CBS News that the concern is overstated. He said the app collects less data than other apps and is working to move user data to U.S.-based servers.