NY social media bills overview:
- Who: Government officials in New York have announced two bills: the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and The New York Child Protection Act.
- Why: The bills are intended to protect children from damaging mental health effects associated with excessive social media use, and to prevent social media platforms from collecting data from underage users without their informed consent.
- Where: The bills would impact consumers in the state of New York.
New York officials have announced new legislation they say is intended to regulate “unhealthy social media usage” by prohibiting minors from being able to access certain addictive content without parental consent.
The office of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a press release announcing the new legislation, cited recent research it argues showed the “devastating” mental health effects in children and young adults that are associated with the excessive use of social media.
“Our kids are in crisis, and the adults in the room need to step up,” Hochul said. “The statistics are extraordinarily disturbing: teen suicide rates are spiking, and diagnoses of anxiety and depression are surging.”
The state — which said it is also concerned about child data privacy — has presented two bills, both sponsored by New York state Sen. Andrew Gournades and Assembly member Nily Rozic, according to Hochul’s office.
New York bills aim to protect children’s data, mental health from social media platforms
The first bill — dubbed the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act — is intended to limit addictive features of social media platforms that are “known to harm the “mental health and development” of children.
The legislation would, among other things, allow parents to block minors’ access to social media from between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m., and forbid social media platforms from sending notifications to minors during those times as well.
The bill would only affect social media platforms that have feeds consisting of user-generated content and other material that is recommended by the platform to its users based on the data it collects from them, according to the governor’s office.
The second bill is being called The New York Child Protection Act and will prohibit online platforms from collecting and sharing the personal data of anyone under the age of 18 without first receiving informed consent.
“As a parent of two young children, taking legislative action to protect our children on social media is personal,” said Gournades, who added he believes it can be just as harmful to youth as alcohol, tobacco and personal vehicles.
In other news involving social media, a class action lawsuit was filed against Meta Platforms in July by a consumer arguing the company’s social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are designed to be addictive to drive a profit.
What are your thoughts on New York’s new youth social media legislation? Let us know in the comments.
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