Banning cell phones in schools

Florida is the 1st state to ban cell phones during classes. A National Center for Education Statistics at IES report says 3/4 of all schools prohibit nonacademic use of cell phones during class. Other states working on similar statewide legislation: Indiana, Oklahoma SB 1314 (2024 | OK), Kansas HB 2641 (2024 | KS) , Vermont S284 (2024 | VT), Connecticut LCO 607 (2024 |CT), and Utah’s Governor sent guidance to all public schools.

Route Fifty | If schools won’t ban kids’ cellphones, some lawmakers say, they will

Washington State’s AI Task Force

Washington State Legislature has passed SB5838 (2024 | WA) to create an AI Task Force. The Task Force will consist of 19 members and be housed in the state Attorney General’s Office. AL, MA, NJ and WI have created similar AI Task Forces. Speaker Johnson in the US House created an AI Task Force a couple weeks ago.

GOV TECH | Washington State Lawmakers Approve AI Task Force Bill

State Data Trend: Mental Health Data

 The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is funding a statewide multigenerational study that aims to identify the causes and risk factors of poor mental health outcomes. The study hopes to run for 20 years gathering data to help policymakers and health care providers identify ways to support long-term mental health success.

Route Fifty | One state looks to collect multiyear data to address the mental health crisis

Tech & Policy: +1 city reconsiders gun shot spotter tech

Add Chicago to the list of jurisdictions that are breaking ties with gun shot spotting technology that alerts law enforcement of the possibility of gun fire. Concerns raised in Chicago include increasing emergency response times with no attributable reduction in violence. Chicago was spending $9 million annually for the technology.

Route Fifty | Chicago is the latest city rethinking disputed technology that listens for gunshots

2023: Record Setting Data Breaches

2023 saw  2,365 more data breaches than the previous record in 2021. The total number of breaches of personal information was 3205 that impacted 353 million.

The T-Mobile breach was the largest affecting 37 million and then the Xfinity breach that impacted 35.9 million.

Why the increase? According to  James E. Lee, chief operating officer of the  Identity Theft Resource Center, ” Many professional cybercriminals supported by nation/states resumed stealing business and personal information after being more focused on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Professional cybercriminals and nation/state actors focused more on finding and exploiting zero day software flaws.”

Governing | 2023 Will Go Down for Record-Setting Number of Data Breaches

A.I. leaders calling for deep fake legislation

888 leaders in artificial intelligence have signed a statement calling for deep fake legislation. Their position is:

Deepfakes are a growing threat to society, and governments must impose obligations throughout the supply chain to stop the proliferation of deepfakes. New laws should:

  1. Fully criminalize deepfake child pornography, even when only fictional children are depicted;
  2. Establish criminal penalties for anyone who knowingly creates or knowingly facilitates the spread of harmful deepfakes; and
  3. Require software developers and distributors to prevent their audio and visual products from creating harmful deepfakes, and to be held liable if their preventive measures are too easily circumvented.

If designed wisely, such laws could nurture socially responsible businesses, and would not need to be excessively burdensome.