Committee takes on parental rights and social media age limits in first meeting
By Schyler Altherr, TheStatehouseFile.com
The 2025 legislative season is officially underway; while the first House and Senate meetings were relatively uneventful, on Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee met to discuss arguably two of the most contentious upcoming bills of 2025: Senate Bill 143, the parental rights bill, and Senate Bill 11, limiting minors’ access and use of social media.
The first bill discussed was SB 143. Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, described her bill as a way to protect children and to enshrine the rights of parents within Indiana law.
“Parents’ right to raise their child is so fundamental, it even goes beyond our Constitution,” she said.
Jordan Carpenter, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, served as legal counsel in the writing of this bill. He painted it as a means to check governmental interference into the ability of parents to raise their children, especially in stopping government officials from withholding information about a child’s gender identity.
In testimony before the committee, Chris Daley, executive director for the Indiana branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed deep concerns that this bill is too broad in its approach.
Earlier, he told TheStatehouseFile.com that the bill could be victim to any number of constitutional challenges. “It does not protect the privacy rights of children,” he said.
The second major bill discussed was SB 11. This bill would require social media operators to limit access to individuals under the age of 16. Anyone who is under the age of 16 would need to have parental permission to access social media.
The Statehouse File spoke with the author of the bill, Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, who voiced his thoughts about the bill before the hearing.
“Social media is really harming our kids,” said Bohacek, “I don’t know a single parent, teacher, psychiatrist, clergy member that would disagree with this.”
Testifying again before the committee, Daley of the ACLU recommended that members vote no on SB 11.
“What this becomes is a feel-good bill that doesn’t make the change you all want to see,” said Daley.
Both pieces of legislation will be brought up again at the next Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Schyler Altherr is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
