Attorney General James Uthmeier says he’s “tired of the politicized narratives” around controversial funding that made its way to a political action committee he chaired last year.

But those narratives, revolving around Medicaid settlement money sent to Hope Florida that ended up in part messaging against constitutional amendments, aren’t tired of him.

“I was not involved in the settlement negotiations related to the Hope Florida contribution, and looking at it, everything looks legal,” Uthmeier said.

Uthmeier also suggested that the money was appropriately programmed, given that charitable entities “can absolutely support issue committees.”

“I think the media misunderstands the difference between issue committees and political candidate committees under the IRS code,” he said. “An issue committee can fight against a ballot initiative and I’m very thankful those groups stepped up and helped us secure a big win.”

The money moved in a way that requires a flow chart to follow it.

The $10 million came from Centene to Hope Florida as part of a $67 million settlement for overbilling Medicaid.

From there, two political action committees (Secure Florida’s Future and Save Our Society from Drugs) requested $5 million each from the Hope Florida Foundation.

After securing that money, the Uthmeier-chaired “Keep Florida Clean” political action committee got donations from the groups totaling $8.5 million.

Uthmeier suggested that the $10 million, which the Tampa Bay Times reports should have solely gone to cover Medicaid overbilling, was a “sweetener” to the settlement, which saw $57 million properly appropriated to the state.

“My understanding is that this was a sweetener in addition to other numbers that were being negotiated. Again, I wasn’t part of that deal,” he said.

The language mirrors Gov. Ron DeSantis’ description of the money as a “cherry on top” of the settlement, though it doesn’t answer the questions raised by many about the money’s maneuvers.

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Attorney General James Uthmeier is cracking down on alleged predation facilitated by a major social media platform.

“Snapchat is advertising to kids as young as 13,” he said in Tampa Tuesday, representing a breach of Florida law and a danger for kids that empowers “predators” and gives them access to “tens of thousands of kids” in the state.

Florida’s HB 3, passed in 2024, requires parental consent for children aged 14 and 15 to use social media. And Snapchat violates that, flouting law banning younger kids from “having access at all.”

Thus, the AG has filed, as of last night, a lawsuit against Snapchat, based on the dangerous practices it has in operating its company.

And he says the lawsuit is “just the beginning” of actions against problematic platforms.

“Child predators are using these dangerous devices right here to get to our kids,” Uthmeier said. “I can’t say enough to parents at home to scare you about the dangers that are out there. There are sick people out there, and they are using these social media applications to find their way into your homes to reach out to your kids. They’re deceptive, they lure them in, they prey upon them, they try to set up meetings, they ask for photos, and we’re not going to tolerate that.”

Uthmeier said Snapchat “happens to be one of the worst offenders.” He noted the state was “tracking a registered sex offender who for months was online pretending to be other people, seducing young people into sending photographs.”

This, and more, presents a present danger to Florida’s youth, Uthmeier claims.

“We’re seeing increased mental health issues, increased suicides. Kids are reacting and changing in a very dangerous way when they spend hours and hours on these platforms that again are designed to be addictive. So we’re going to be monitoring those things as well. We’ve got various consumer protection arguments that we’re raising,” he added.

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Legislation to better safeguard kids online while giving parents and police more tools to fight and catch pedophiles just cleared its last committee stop in the House after undergoing some notable changes.

The House Commerce Committee voted unanimously for HB 743, the Legislature’s latest proposal aimed at tamping down on web-based predation of Florida youths.

Escambia County Republican Rep. Michelle Salzman, one of the measure’s sponsors, said the “responsible, narrowly crafted” changes it proposes will help curb “one of the most heinous crimes imaginable.”

“We owe it to these children and to the families shattered by the crimes,” she said. “Let’s give law enforcement and prosecutors every possible chance to hold traffickers accountable.”

Salzman amended her bill Tuesday to change its scope. Rather than require social media platforms to give law enforcement blanket access to a minor’s account after receiving a warrant or parental consent, the companies would have to disclose “any technically feasible and reasonably available data” to a police officer if given a court order, subpoena or search warrant.

The amended bill also removed a requirement that social media platforms allow parents and legal guardians to view their 14- and 15-year-olds’ online messages. Instead, under the strike-all language, platforms would need only to allow parents and legal guardians to view a list of the account names with which their child exchanged messages.

Social media platforms would also have to delete all personal information for any account, regardless of the account holder’s age, within 45 days of its termination by the user unless there are legal requirements to maintain the data.

One provision that carried over unchanged from the bill’s prior iteration would prohibit social media companies from allowing users under 14 to access messages designed to disappear or self-destruct after a certain time period, like those on Snapchat and Instagram.

HB 743 differs from its upper-chamber companion (SB 868) by Spring Hill Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, which targets end-to-end encryption that many platforms use to protect their systems and users from privacy breaches. Both bills pend floor votes after clearing their respective committee assignments.

ACLU Florida and TechNet, a technology advocacy group, signaled opposition to HB 743. Florida Family Voice and Florida Prosecuting Attorneys signaled support.

State Attorney Jack Campbell of the 2nd Judicial Circuit said the bill is a necessary step toward protecting kids where predators hunt them today.

“People who are looking for children don’t go to playgrounds anymore; they go to chatrooms,” he said. “Unfortunately, while the internet has been an extraordinarily powerful tool, that tool like many tools can be used for great evil, and due to greater levels of encryption, greater sophistication in social media, that is where pedophiles are meeting their victims. And this is where the evidence is.”

Merritt Island Republican Rep. Tyler Sirois, HB 743’s other sponsor, noted that despite the bill’s intended effects, no one representing a social media company attended the meeting to speak for or against it.

“They could have filled out a speaker card and offered some constructive feedback in terms of what they’re going to do proactively in order to protect our kids online,” he said. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, everything I’ve seen from them (shows) they don’t give a damn about our kids. We all need to be paying more attention to that.”

HB 743 adds to legislation (HB 3) state lawmakers passed in 2024 limiting minors’ access to social media platforms, including prohibiting kids 13 and younger from opening and maintaining accounts and requiring parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to do so.

That restriction is now being challenged in court.

The federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which has been in effect since April 2000, requires social media companies to get verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information about their children, though few believe it’s been effectively enforced.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 1 in 5 children per year receive unwanted sexual solicitation online. One in 33 are targets of aggressive sexual solicitation, which involves pushes by the culprit to make offline contact. And at any given time, some 50,000 predators are on the internet actively seeking out children.

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