Legislation passed by the state House and approved Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee would require school boards to adopt policies prohibiting TikTok from being used on school computers and networks.
House Bill 959 would also prohibit teachers and other school employees from using TikTok for classroom instruction or to communicate or promote any school-sponsored activities.
“It’s designed to protect children from social media and its harms,” Sen. Warren Daniel, a Burke County Republican, told the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.
The TikTok language is part of a broader bill which would require schools to teach social media literacy skills to students.
The bill was amended Wednesday to include wording from legislation previously approved by the Senate to require students to turn their phones off in class. Both the House and Senate have passed their own bills regulating phone use in schools but haven’t agreed on which one to send to Gov. Josh Stein.
A separate bill prohibiting TikTok from being used on government devices was passed by the Senate. The House hasn’t taken up that bill yet.
TIKITOK FACES LEGAL CHALLENGES
The legislation comes amid rising concerns about the use of social media in general and TikTok in particular.
Last year, Congress passed a law banning TikTok as of Jan. 19, 2025, unless the Chinese-owned company is sold to a U.S. owner. Lawmakers raised national security concerns about ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, sharing user data with the Chinese government.
TikTok has remained in operation in the U.S. because President Donald Trump has delayed enforcement of the ban.
In addition, schools have dealt with multiple destructive TikTok challenges over the years, including encouraging students to slap teachers and vandalize school bathrooms.
Most recently, a TikTok challenge encouraged students to intentionally short-circuit laptop computers to make them smoke. Wake County has warned students that they will face disciplinary action and potentially criminal charges if they damage their school-issued Chromebooks.
TikTok is already banned on the Wake County school system’s network.
The Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systems and the State of North Carolina are among the groups who’ve joined federal lawsuits accusing ByteDance and owners of other major social media platforms of addicting young people.
House Bill 959 would prohibit schools from using any TikTok successor application or service developed, provided or owned by ByteDance.
©2025 The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
