Social media regulation bill fails on third reading, is later reconsidered and circled

Legislators debated S.B. 152 on the floor, a bill the sponsor described as providing tools for parents and changes to age verification and enforcement mechanisms to protect children from social media harms. Sponsor Senator McCall said the bill's key parts include ID verification, parental control tools and enforcement by the Division of Consumer Protection.

"Social media is damaging our kids in a major, major way," Senator McCall said on the floor while urging colleagues to move the bill forward and allow further substitutions.

Several senators said they were not comfortable moving the bill forward without public notice of pending amendments and substitutes. Senator Reby said she would prefer the bill be circled until amendments were public and voted "no" on the third‑reading motion. The roll call resulted in a 12‑11 failure on third reading.

After the vote, Senate members later voted to reconsider their prior action. A motion to reconsider passed, the bill was placed at the top of the second‑reading calendar and Senate leadership later accepted a motion to circle S.B. 152 so sponsors can produce a substitute aimed at less prescriptive age‑verification language and parental controls.

What happens next: S.B. 152 remains circled; sponsors said they would work on substitute language addressing verification and parental control tools before bringing it back for floor consideration.