JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Ten new Florida laws will take effect on the first of the new year, and a handful of them sparked controversy during the 2024 legislative session.
Starting January 1, Floridians will need to be more mindful of how they interact with first responders.
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A new state law makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to come within 25 feet of first responders with the intent to harass or threaten them while they perform their legal duties.
“You shouldn’t be in a situation where you’re at a traffic stop, you’re responding to a call of someone in distress and then you have people come trying to interdict or trying to harass you,” Governor Ron DeSantis said during the April bill signing in St. Johns County.
Read: Here’s a list of new Florida laws set to take effect starting Jan. 1, 2025
The change drew some pushback from Florida Democrats, who worry vagueness in the law could discourage citizens from documenting police interactions.
“George Floyd was killed, executed basically, and if that wasn’t caught on camera that police officer may not have been arrested,” State Rep. Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) said in an April interview.
Another change coming in 2025 will be a new requirement for adult websites to verify users’ ages.
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“We don’t want 13 and 14-year-olds looking at this stuff,” State Sen. Randy Fine (R-Palm Bay) said in a December interview.
It’s already spurred a lawsuit raising privacy concerns from the adult entertainment industry and caused the website Pornhub to announce it will no longer offer services in Florida.
“I know that the law says, ‘Hey listen, it’s going to be anonymous, nobody is going to keep this information.’ That’s not the way the internet works,” Mike Stabile, Director of Public Policy for the Free Speech Coalition, said in a December interview.
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Also starting on Jan. 1, voters will need to provide written consent before having their political affiliation changed at the DMV and be issued a receipt documenting the change.
Lawmakers argue this will ensure no mistakes are made moving forward.
“That the voter themselves are requesting this change and that there’s evidence that the change has been made in the way in which they had asked,” State Rep. Vicki Lopez (R-Miami) said during a February committee hearing on the bill.
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