>>Thi week on NewsNight, as the U.S. Senate passes a bill aimed at protecting children online, Florida draws up rules to implement its own restriction on kids access to social media.

Plus, efforts to improve security in downtown Orlando.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello.

I'm Steve Mort.

Welcome to NewsNigh where we take a deep dive into the storie and issues that matter to central Florida and how they shap our community.

The U.S. Senate this week passed a bill aime at protecting children online, including on social media platforms.

We'll talk more about that in a bit.

Meanwhile, a process is underway to develop rules designed to restrict children's access to social media platform and adult websites in Florida, beginning on January 1st next year.

The state legislature recently passed a law preventing kids under the age of 16 from opening some types of social media account, but allowing 14 and 15 year olds to do so with parental consent.

Social media platforms would be restricted based on various criteria, such as whether they have, quote, addictive features.

The law requires companies to verify the age of users, both for social media and pornographic sites.

Florida's no pressing ahead with rulemaking, despite concerns from tech companies and civil liberties groups that say age verification and other parts of the law violate the First Amendment.

The proposed rules published by the Attorney General's office tackle three areas: the types of age verification require to be carried out by companies, how to determine whether someone's a parent able to give consent and what constitutes a knowing or reckless violation of the law, including willful disregard of a person's age.

All right.

So let's get into the issue in depth now.

Joining me in the studio this week, Talia Blake.

She's always up early at Central Florida Public Media, Morning Edition host and also covers the economy.

Thanks for being Talia.

Good to see you.

Greg Angel, anchor at Spectrum News 13.

Good to see you, Greg.

>>Always a pleasure.

>>And Annie Martin, investigative reporter over at the Orlando Sentinel.

Good to see you, Annie.

>>Thanks for having me.

>>Thank you all for coming in.

Really appreciate it.

Greg, let me start with you.

Much of this discussion and these propose rules are on age verification.

How does the state propose those that companies should ascertain the age of users?

>>Well, at this point, they're putting the burden bac on these social media sites.

And again, we're talking, you know, Facebook or Meta, Instagram, Twitter, X, Tik Tok, companies like that.

So these are the widely available, widely assessable social media companies.

And the question is, what process will then they come up with?

Would it be something like I.D.

me is a is a popular online website company that that verifies identity.

So would parents have to upload their driver's license to a site to then verify their account, to then give access to a child, which again, you know, 14, 15 year olds because, you know below that's supposed to be, you know, totally off.

>>There are all kinds of anonymity issues with that, right?

If people have got to provide their IDs online.

>>Well, not only that, but then also how do you police that and verify that the driver's license that's being provided is actually the individual?

This comes down to another one of those cases of the law trying to meet the rapid advancement of technology and technology just changing more quickly than than laws and processes can actually keep up.

Not to mention the First Amendment challenges and the other challenges to practicality of actually enforcing this.

>>Yeah.

What do tech and civil liberties groups say about that age verification issue?

There seems to be quite a lot of pushback on that.

>>That's right.

The American Civil Liberties Union has said tha this will threaten adults anonymity onlin because it will require them to submit proof of age or disclose their age to tech companies.

And it's also said when they're requiring young people who are 14, 15 years old, who need parents permission to access social media sites, requiring them to provide their parents information, their name, their date of birth, you know, proof that they are that child's parent will sacrifice the parents anonymity online.

>>Yeah.

>>Yeah.

Probably the challenge with that, too, is how many people kind o have these de facto, you know, called keyboard warriors where they're anonymous, you know, Twitter accounts and things like that.

And then is there the concern, well, I if I have to supply my driver's license to prove my identity, you know, is the government or X or Twitter now tracking what I'm posting or something like that?

>>I mean, what kinds of sites?

It's it doesn't define, this law, which social media sites will be affected?

I mean, assuming this comes in January 1st, what do we know about that, Talia?

>>Oh, I mean, it's still super unclear.

I mean, Greg was kind of mentioning earlier, Facebook, Instagram, X, Twitter, all those kinds of sites are basically vulnerabl right now because it's not clea in the bill language what exactly does this target.

And that kind of speaks to some critics argument that this bill is super vague, lik the language is just too vague.

We don't understand.

The bill doesn't say it.

The bil author hasn't really specified.

These are the-- >>Talk about addictive qualities.

>>Right.

Exactly.

So that's the main thing.

They talk about you know, addictive qualities.

But it really talks about any apps that users can like upload content or review others content.

How many apps is that that we use today when we're interacting with each other?

It just kind of really like blankets a swath of apps that could be affected by it.

>>Addictive seems to b somewhat subjective, of course.

I mean, the law was a majo priority of the House Speaker, Paul Renner.

It did receive bipartisan backing, though, but based on moves that we've seen in state elsewhere, I think California, you know, blue, blue and red states-- >>Ohio, Arkansas.

>>Can we expect challenges to this law, do you think?

>>Oh, absolutely, because it's kind of like a little bit of the Wild West.

And the main argument here is with First Amendment and what people have access to.

Keep in mind, Meta, X, these are technically private companies, so they have the allowance to operate their companies.

>>Yes.

>>As they want.

Part of the challenge to is right now it's a patchwork.

And that's the problem where when you have one state adapting certain rules and another state adapting it differently.

And how are these large companies supposed to actually roll out various protections and things like that?

You know, part of the othe issue here, again, enforcement.

You know, our eight year ol nephew was in town not long ago from out of state, not a resident of Florida.

He he has access to social media, including YouTube, which again, also deals with some of the parameters of algorithm.

How many kids when you go out to eat, how many, you know, five year olds you see with with iPads at the at the table, watching YouTube and things like that.

And so how are you going to enforce it, especially with all the millions of visitors we get every year who aren't Florida residents?

Are you going to have social media, police literally going around town?

And and I think that's part of the challenge there is not only the First Amendment legal arguments but then also the practicality of enforcement.

>>Or even on the flip side of that, I mean, think if a kid travels out of the state, they could just make their social media profile right there, travel to Georgia on a family vacation, make their social media profile, come back to Florida, you still have it.

>>And then if it's an out-of-state parent, do they come in?

Do they have to upload their driver's license to do an I.D., or is it just one of those pop ups, you know, on a website?

Do you verify you're at least 16 years old and click yes or no?

And that's that?

>>Well, the cross-state thing is interesting, but there is a bipartisan effort in Congress as well.

And we saw that move in the Senate this week to push social media protections for kids.

I think the Senate passed it by in a bipartisan way, the child online safety bill.

What is proposed at the federal level, how does it differ from what we've seen in Florida?

>>So the federal approach seems to be a little bit more holistic.

They're looking more at those addictive features that are on social media apps, versus Florida is really looking at that age requirement.

How old are you when you're on those of those social media apps?

But the federal the child safety bill, they're looking at, you know, things that promote violence, bullying.

There are some effort to things that promote suicide and then things that like limit people who are older contacting children, some of those addictive features, like, you know, when you're scrolling on reels or TikTok and the videos just keep coming and coming things that will limit those kinds of addictive features.

>>Yeah, I mean, there is bipartisan support, but there is pushback, of course, as you would imagine, from the tech companies.

It's pretty ferocious in Washington at the moment.

I mean, is the opposition broadly free speech based, as we've seen in Florida?

>>Well, certainl there have been those concerns that it will harm individual's right to free speech and possibly even harm some children.

Of course the tech companies are saying, well, this is going to put an undue burden on us to enforce this.

How are we supposed to, you know, weed out children who are too young or, you know, protect them from features that are a standard part of our website or app for adults like the automatic videos and some of the other things that Talia mentioned.

>>Really interesting area emerging area.

>>And something you think about too, when you look at the social media, you look a some of the companies like Meta and they actually have like Facebook Messenger for kids.

And, you know, some of the social media is coming out with with some of these platforms and products kind of targeting kids.

I think there's also like YouTube for kids and things like that.

So it will be interesting to to see whether those specific platforms and products are specifically targeted.

It it's just interesting because it's a wide open store and a lot of respect.

>>And of course, we don't know whether this is going to get past the US House.

Right.

>>Right.

And that remains to be seen in the coming weeks.

>>Just quickly, Greg, I mean, there is another law that's pitted Florida against big tech.

Of course, the US Supreme Court put on hold Florida and I think a Texas law to limit social companies and how they regulat content posted by their users.

The court has sent that back to the lower courts for further analysis.

But from what the justices have said, can we glean anything from how they're looking at that law?

>>I think it's one of those still kind of almost a fact finding mission of sorts still, because the argument made by Florida and Texas is that, in their words, these companies like Facebook and Twitter, they're they're liberal leaning companies.

And if any conservative or Republican posts anything pro GOP that it gets censored or the algorithm takes it down and and buries it.

So we need to make sure that we have laws in place that that a GOP voice is as loud as a liberal voice on social media.

That's the argument.

So what the US Supreme Court has said is, okay, we're taking a look at this argument.

We're going to send this back to the lower court.

We're going to have a lower court, look at this a bit more and try to figure out what are the four corners of this argument, how does it apply to current law and basically saying we'll take this up a little bit later.

>>They do seem a little skeptical, though, when you look at the opinion that was written.

But we'll certainly see how they come down on the issue eventually.

You can find a link to the full text of Florida' proposed rules on social media for kids on our website, wucf.org/newsnight Okay.

Next tonight, it was reported last week that suspended Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill has been under federal investigation.

New documents released by state prosecutors in central Florida and first obtained by WKMG News 6 show the probe by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development relates to the use of federal loans as a mortgage to buy a home.

>>Regina Hill has not been charged with any federal crimes, but she is facing trial possibly by late September on charge related to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into allegations of elder abuse and mortgage fraud.

She's accused of obtainin a fraudulent power of attorney over an elderly woman and then using it to spend the woman's money on travel and luxury items.

>>In April, Governor DeSantis suspended Hill, who's denied any wrongdoing.

Shaniqua Rose took over as Orlando District five commissioner following a special election.

Although Hill could return t the city council if acquitted.

Well, the Orlando Sentinel has been following all this closely and through public records requests has gotten more insight into the depth of this investigation.

So Annie let me start with you on this one and the summary released by federal investigators, first of all, which revealed that federal probe, what are we learning on that?

>>Well, we learned through a report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that Regina Hill is the subject or was the subject of a probe by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development concerning a loan she obtained to purchase a home in West Orlando.

The home was purchased in her name along with the name of an elderly constituent who she said that she was helping care for and who prosecutors now say she was taking advantage of.

We don't know the status of that federal probe.

I reached out to HUD last week and they they wouldn't say anything about whether that's ongoing or whether that's been closed.

>>Keeping them keeping tha close to their chest, I guess.

I mean, through public records request, though, you gathered additional documents learning about investigators interest in caregivers hired by Regina Hill.

What have you been seeing in those documents?

>>Well, investigators say Regina Hill hired several women to, quote unquote, care for this elderly constituent.

And these women were not affiliate with a home health care agency.

They were, investigators believe, people that she found at local homeless shelters.

>>They weren't qualified.

>>They were not people who were officially working in that capacity.

And some of them actually had criminal backgrounds as well, the FDLE report noted.

So and Regina Hill was not using her own money, investigators say, to pay for these caregivers.

She was using the elderly woman's accounts to pay for these caregivers.

And in some cases, the women were living in the woman's home with her and they were also told to keep other people away from the elderly woman.

One woman told investigators that she was basically instructed to tell other people, including the elderly woman's pastor, other church members, neighbors away from the house.

And the other interesting thing that that report revealed was Regina Hill had had these cameras installed inside the woman's home, in her living areas, in her bedroom, and she had access to the images that were captured on those cameras while these caregivers were tasked with taking care of this woman.

>>Now, when you've been poring over these these documents for your reporting, I mean do you get a picture of what investigators are trying - would you get an idea of what investigators are trying to build in terms of a picture in this case?

>>Certainly, they want to paint Regina Hill as a someone who was preying upon an elderly and vulnerable woman.

This woman is now 96 years old.

She struggles with memory issues.

And they have certainly shown through these documents that Regina Hill was using her resources, her financial resources for her financial gain.

And they also showed that Regina Hill had really just really ingrained herself in this woman's life, enmeshed herself in this woman's life.

She had frequent contact with this woman.

She and her son may have been living in a second home that this woman owned.

And, you know, since 2021, she had really become a big part of this woman's life with the goal investigators say, of taking advantage of her and using her financial resources for her gain.

>>Fascinatin findings from those documents.

Greg Spectrum's been following this case, of course, since the very beginning.

Just take a step back from it and just remind our viewers how this case got going in the first place.

>>Well, the information came from someone close to Regina Hill, an individual that FDLE and the report Annie was just talking about refers to as a whistleblower, somebody who came forward.

And according to FDLE, this individual had actually gone to multiple law enforcement agencies, including FDLE.

And it was during the course of that investigation where they say that they became aware of the HUD investigation as well.

So it was very much a tipster.

I think what's interesting with this is some of the parallels we have also extensively covered in recent years, the longstanding failures of the judicial syste when it comes to guardianship, which very much lies in the fact of judges giving other people extraordinary amount of power over other individuals their finances.

>>Whether it's guardianships, or powers of attorney.

>>Absolutely.

And it shows you the scope of that responsibility and authority that you can buy and sell property and move assets.

I mean, there was the argument at the time that wards of guardians had less power then they couldn't even vote, whereas people in prison had more rights and freedoms than somebody who is in the care of guardianship.

So I think ultimately, beyond however this case, specifically with Regina help pans out, will there continue to be other reforms looking at the scope of the judicial process when it comes to assigning any kind of power of attorney or responsibility over other individuals?

>>I know the Orlando Sentinel editorial board has called for changes to Florida law.

You guys over at Central Florida Public Media have a reporter that focuses on issues around elder care.

And those calls for alternatives.

The legislature did actually pass a law which came into effect last month, which introduces something called supportive decision making into the Florida statutes.

What does that do?

>>So it basically gives the person with the disability o the older person more autonomy.

So they have final say over what happens with their life.

So you can have their support that they're using.

Right.

They can obtain information for you.

They can communicate your wishes.

But at the end of the day, it's what you want to do.

It's what that person wants to do.

And they're not binded by whatever actions the supporter took.

So it really kind of gives the powe back to the person in a sense.

>>Your colleague, Curtis McCloud, has been in touch, of course, with Regina Hill over the course of this.

What does she say her plans are now from his reporting?

>>So to be clear, Regina Hill, suspended Commissioner Regina Hill, she has denied any wrongdoing and she remains adamant that once the cases are resolved, she will be vindicated.

She will be found innocent, and she plans to assum the role and leadership again, as you mentioned in your piece there, Steve, Shan Rose, who won this runoff election.

An election, by the way that that Regina Hill voted in.

So she took part in that process, but Shan Rose has been elected to finish the term to serve either until this case is resolved.

If she's found not guilty, then Regina Hill gets her seat back or Shan Rose will serve until the end of this term, which is next November.

So about a year and a half here.

But she's remaining adaman she did not do anything wrong.

She will be vindicate and plans to get her seat back.

>>She is pretty adamant.

Right.

And it's important to note that she doesn't face any federal charges, not accused of any federal crimes at this point, right?

>>Yes, that's correct.

And like Greg said, you know, she's remained adamant that she was helping this woman.

She was, you know came in contact with this woman when her home was in reall deplorable circumstances.

She had code enforcement officers out at her home and she stepped in to help fix up this woman's home and make it livable again.

>>Yeah, well, it's an interesting story, and I'm sure you guys will keep covering it as we go forward.

Meanwhile, we always want to hear your thoughts on the news of the week.

Be sure to visit us on social media at WUCFTV, on Facebook and Instagram, and you'll find us as well on X @NewsNightWUCF Okay.

Finally tonight, the Orlando City Counci will hold a second hearing this mont on an ordinance that would require nightclub to be at least 300 feet from each other.

City commissioners say they hope it will help reduce crime in downtown and allow other types of businesses to move in.

That would replace a six month moratorium on new nightclubs set to expire this September.

Krystel Knowles reports.

>>During the day, downtow Orlando is a business district, but at night, some people trade in their suits for their best club attire.

On Orange Avenue, there i a high concentration of clubs.

48 of them.

But that is not sitting well with most city leaders.

Instead, they want more restaurants and other type of businesses to move in.

City Commissioner Jim Gray says a lot of nightclubs pose a safety issue.

>>We have been talking about this for years.

In the month of June, arrest 144, fights 22, disturbances 37, firearms seized 24, contacts in parking garage 352.

If that's the kind of downtown we want at night, we got it.

>>Most of the commissioners are in support of the new ordinance, except for Tony Ortiz.

He says if it passes, it could have unintended consequences.

>>I don't want to find our city to be empty, you know, to becom a ghost town at night.

And I think there's other measure that we should definitely be taking that I, I don't know if we have in terms of our safety and security.

>>Some downtown workers say they would like to see more variety in the area.

>>Downtown's definitely ver club heavy and club focused.

Would be coo to see other activities and things to d that don't revolve around drinking all the time.

It gets really hectic in this like one block right here.

We've had since I've started working in this building, we've had at least two shootings, like at the front door.

So yeah, I do think that would help.

>>Other major Florida cities like Tampa, Miami Beach and Daytona Beac have implemented similar codes.

>>NewsNight intern Emily Ching compiled that report.

Annie let me start with you, because your colleagues have covere this issue extensively as well.

Ryan Gillespie, I think, has been on this story.

It was a 6 to 1 vote on the council, but have we seen pushback from the business community in downtown?

>>Yes, absolutely.

This new law or ordinance if it's approved, will limit nightclub to one per city block.

And most of the existin nightclubs downtown are in violation of that.

And to be clear, a nightclub is defined by Orlando, is a establishment that provides entertainment after midnight.

And some club owners are concerned, even those who own existing clubs, that if the have to close for a few months, you know, even to remodel, that they won't be able to continue to exist because even though they're currently grandfathered in, they're afraid that they will lose that status if they have to close.

Now, the rules that have been proposed call for leniency for clubs that want to close for up for two years due to remodeling.

But some club club owners are just concerned that they will not get the leniency that's been promised to them.

>>Makes expansion plans difficult for sure.

I mean, what do proponent of this ordinance say downtown?

>>Well you hear from some of them, like Jim Gray, for example, he's saying like, look, the type of businesses, like nightclubs, are drawing the wrong crowd and the wrong atmosphere.

It's bringing violence downtown because when you're out on those streets at 10:00, 11:00 at night, when the sports event are getting out, and you even have little kids with parent trying to get back to parking, it's a sketchy environment downtown.

And that's where I think some of the proponents are trying to figure out how do we rebuild that Orlando experienc that we want everybody to have and figure out what kind of businesses and atmosphere do they want downtown to be?

>>Well, other citie have been trying to figure out how they want their downtowns to be.

Daytona Beach is one of them that's attempted to tackle those security issues.

What has been tried elsewhere?

>>Yeah, just like in that package that Emily prepared.

Dayton has kind of a similar ordinance with nightclubs 500 feet apart.

Miami, it's a little less than that, about 300 feet apart.

>>The same as the-- >>Same as the Orlando proposal.

And just similar to Orlando as well.

Daytona has to those nightclub owners and managers have to provide their own security, whether it's off duty police or private security, they also have to provide their own security.

One thing that's kind of unique about Daytona, though, is that they have to install their own security cameras like they have to have security cameras on property.

I don't think Orlando' ordinance has that requirement.

Not sure about Miami Beach, but that is kind of specific to Daytona.

So we've seen versions of this ordinance in other major cities in Florida.

>>Well, I remember too our studio right downtown, so we saw it.

There was a period of time they were putting up literally metal detectors downtown and trying to create that event zone on Orange Avenue where we see the barricades and things like that frequently.

>>Just finally Annie, this has got to go for second reading, right?

Do we have a timeline on it?

>>Yes.

The second reading is set for August 12th.

And if the ordinance is approved, it will take effect in September when the existing moratorium on new nightclubs is set to expire.

>>Well, certainly a lot of people seem to want some changes downtown, but it will be interesting to see how it all comes out in the wash. A reminder, be sure to head on over to our website for much more NewsNigh content.

Visit us onlin at wucf.org/newsnight along the botto of your screen.

Now, that is all the tim we have for this week.

My thanks to Talia Blake, Central Florida Public Media.

Greg Angel from Spectrum News 13, Annie Martin from the Orlando Sentinel.

Thank you guys, so much for coming in.

>>Always a pleasure >>Really appreciate your time.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

But in the meantime, for all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.