Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis have spent years hurling political and policy grenades from their blue and red state capitols — the personification of a nation riven by partisan warring.

But the California Democrat and the Florida Republican now find themselves converging on an issue that’s gained a surprising amount of bipartisan support: outright banning, or severely curtailing, children from using smartphones at schools.

That doesn’t mean the popular policy will erase the long-running grudge match.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to restrict the use of smartphones in the state’s public schools, according to an article from Politico that was published Tuesday. 

The announcement, made exclusively to Politico, comes a day after Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy argued in a New York Times op-ed that social media platforms are damaging enough to the mental health of adolescents that Congress should require the platforms to come with a warning label, similar to the ones you find on tobacco products. 

Florida’s Republican governor and California’s Democratic governor rarely find common ground, but they may have found their bipartisan commonplace: social media restrictions for children.

Govs. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Gavin Newsom (D-CA) have agreed in recent weeks that social media poses some inherent harm to children and should be restricted. The agreement likely won’t push away the pair’s feud, but it “underscores the scope of this problem,” according to California Republican Assemblyman Josh Hoover.

One of the most important lessons I learned in medical school was that in an emergency, you don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect information. You assess the available facts, you use your best judgment, and you act quickly.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called Monday for Congress to pass legislation mandating social media platforms feature a warning about the harm they pose to teens’ mental health, after the nation’s highest health official raised the alarm last year about the impact of social media on young people.

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Murthy said a Surgeon General’s warning label should be required on social media platforms, “stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy argued social media companies should be required to display mental health warnings about the use of their platforms.

Murthy argued in an op-ed for the New York Times that the platforms have been particularly harmful for young Americans. The official first sounded the alarm about social media last year when he called on Congress to enact policies that would prevent adolescents from being exposed to extreme violent and sexual content via algorithms.

New York could soon become the first state to pass a law restricting social media platforms from using algorithms to promote content to minors.

New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers are nearing a legislative deal on the proposal, according to a person familiar with the matter. The bill would push platforms such as TikTok and Meta’s Instagram to rank content in chronological order by default for young users.

Jane Doe is 38 years old now, but the pain she says she suffered at the hands of a Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high school English teacher more than 20 years ago remains fresh.

"I have nightmares almost every night," she said in her first on-camera interview about her experience. "It's still really hard to talk about it."

Jane was referring to inappropriate contact she said she had with a teacher at Gordon S. Hubbard High School in Chicago's West Lawn Neighborhood.