{"id":2470310,"date":"2025-08-03T15:38:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abbott-touts-classroom-cell-phone-ban-expanded-online-protections-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T15:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:41:11","slug":"abbott-touts-classroom-cell-phone-ban-expanded-online-protections-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/abbott-touts-classroom-cell-phone-ban-expanded-online-protections-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbott touts classroom cell phone ban, expanded online protections &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fabbott-touts-classroom-cell-phone-ban-expanded-online-protections-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2470310&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Texas Governor Greg Abbott ceremonially signed two new laws in Amarillo aimed at protecting children and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nearly-200-billion-in-emergency-school-funding-saw-slight-academic-recovery-studies-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Nearly 0 billion in emergency school funding saw slight academic recovery: Studies - Washington Examiner\">enhancing educational outcomes<\/a> in public schools. coauthored by freshman state Representative Caroline fairly, the laws ban the use of personal communication devices-such as cell phones, smart watches, and tablets-in classrooms, emphasizing that students should focus on learning rather than being distracted by technology.One law, the App Store Accountability Act, requires app stores to verify users&#8217; ages and obtain parental consent for minors to download or purchase apps, increasing openness and safety for children online. The other law mandates schools to implement policies restricting or managing the presence of personal communication devices during the school day,with disciplinary measures for noncompliance. Both bills received <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawmakers-debate-future-infrastructure-bills\/\" title=\"...makers debate future infrastructure ...\">strong bipartisan support<\/a> and aim to prioritize parents&#8217; authority over technology use while addressing concerns about the impact of smartphones on student engagement and mental health. These measures align Texas with several other states that have enacted similar restrictions in schools.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Abbott touts classroom cell phone ban, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doe-cancels-loan-for-energy-project-illinois-lawmaker-calls-a-scam-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"DOE cancels loan for energy project Illinois ...maker calls a &#039;scam&#039; - Washington Examiner\">expanded online child protections<\/a> in Amarillo<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2195413\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>(The Center Square) &ndash; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/texas\" title=\"\">Texas<\/a> Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/greg-abbott\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Greg Abbott <\/a>ceremonially signed two bills into law coauthored by freshman state Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo, designed to expand protections for children and improve education outcomes in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/public-schools\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">public schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The laws prohibit personal communication devices in classrooms, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-government-looking-into-mcdonalds-ice-cream-machines\/\" title=\"Federal Government Looking Into McDonald\u2019s Ice Cream Machines\">including cell phones<\/a>, smart watches, tablets and other devices, putting &ldquo;parents in charge of apps on their child&rsquo;s phone. Kids should be learning, not scrolling,&rdquo; Abbott said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3489763\/georgia-housing-shortage-report\/\">No magic solution for Georgia&#8217;s housing shortage: Report<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3489717\/alex-padilla-investigation-trump-bls-director-fired\/\">Padilla says investigation into Trump &#8216;certainly in order&#8217; after BLS director fired<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-house\/3489667\/kevin-hassett-defends-trump-firing-labor-statistic-commissioner\/\">Kevin Hassett defends Trump firing labor statistic commissioner<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Fairly, a freshman and youngest member of the Texas House, said she was honored that Abbott was in Amarillo &ldquo;to sign two of my bills into law &ndash; the App Store Accountability Act and Phone-Free Schools. Proud to see Texas leading the way for parents, kids and classrooms!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The bill signing was held in Fairly&rsquo;s district in Amarillo, attended by House Speaker Dustin Burrows, Acting Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Kelly Hancock, state Reps. Fairly, Brad Buckley and Jared Patterson, Amarillo Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Deidre Parish, Amarillo High School teacher Mellessa Denny and other state and local officials.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott signed SB 2420, filed by state Sen. Angela Paxton and Fairly, known as the App Store Accountability Act. It requires application (app) stores to verify a user&rsquo;s age when creating an account. It requires parental consent for minors, including tying a minor&rsquo;s account to their parent&rsquo;s account, and requiring consent for a minor to download or purchase an app or make in-app purchases.<\/p>\n<p>It <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >amends current law related &#038;ldquo<\/a>;to the regulation of platforms for the sale and distribution of software applications for mobile devices.&rdquo; It also requires app developers to provide information about the app&rsquo;s rating and the reasoning for its rating. &ldquo;App stores have touted that they already employ age verification, so this simply provides additional framework, transparency, and enforcement to protect the children of Texas,&rdquo; the bill analysis states.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Parents &ndash; not tech companies &ndash; know what&rsquo;s best for their child. We will always put Texas kids and Texas parents first,&rdquo; Abbott said.<\/p>\n<p>The bill passed with strong bipartisan support in the House and nearly unanimously in the Senate. Abbott signed it into law in May.<\/p>\n<p>He also ceremonially signed HB 1481, filed by Fairly and state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, which bans a range of electronic devices from being used in public school classrooms and open-enrollment charters schools.<\/p>\n<p>It requires schools to adopt polices prohibiting students from using personal communication devices during the school day. Personal communication devices include cell phones, tablets, smart watches, radios, pagers and &ldquo;any other electronic device capable of telecommunication or digital communication.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The polices must either prohibit personal devices on school property or provide a designated storage area for devices during the school day. It also requires the schools to adopt disciplinary measures for noncompliance.<\/p>\n<p>The bill passed with strong bipartisan support in the House and unanimously in the Senate. Abbott signed it into law in June. Because of its overwhelming support, it became effective June 20.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Educators and researchers have raised concerns about the impact that smartphones have on student learning and student engagement,&rdquo; Abbott said. &ldquo;Experts have explained that smartphones and social media affect the mental health of children. If we are going to be number one in education, it is going to require the undivided attention of our students in the classroom.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3489594\/texas-house-advances-newly-drawn-gop-congressional-map\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TEXAS HOUSE ADVANCES NEWLY DRAWN CONGRESSIONAL MAP THAT FAVORS GOP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fairly argues &ldquo;the increasing presence of personal devices in Texas schools poses concerns about their impact on student learning, safety, mental health, and overall school environment.&rdquo; She filed the bill &ldquo;to mitigate the negative effects of a student&rsquo;s use of personal communication devices &hellip; to prohibit different types of personal communication devices, including cell phones, in order to create a more focused, engaging, and safe learning environment for students.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Florida, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, and Louisiana have already enacted laws restricting cell phone use in public schools.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2195413\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2195413\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abbott signs bills banning classroom devices, boosting child protections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2470311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/greg-abbott.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[3697,48358,35136,60538,3694],"class_list":["post-2470310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-abbott","tag-cell-phone-ban","tag-education-policy","tag-online-protections","tag-texas"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/greg-abbott.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2470310"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2470314,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470310\/revisions\/2470314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2470311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2470310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2470310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2470310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}