NY push to restrict kids’ ‘addictive’ social media feeds could go viral across the US
A milestone New York push to restrict kids’ “addictive” social media feeds could go viral across the US.
The first-in-the-nation legislation barring Big Tech companies like Instagram and TikTok from bombarding children with algorithm-based feeds is poised to pass in Albany this week as lawmakers skip town Friday⛎ for the remainder of the year.
Empire State parents w♐ould gain more control over their kids’ social media scrolls 🌊under the twin bills – an outcome that might have implications for moms and dads nationwide, lawmakers and advocates told The Post.
“This can very quickly become a national st🦩andard, especially if New York and California go, that’s h𓄧alf the market right there,” Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), who sponsored the legislation, said Tuesday.
But the legislation, despite having the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia J🦂ames, isn’t a done deal.
Lawmakers still have to pass the measures, and Big Tech companies that have already sunk roughly $1 million in lobbying e☂fforts against the bills are all but certain to mount a brutal legal challenge.
Hochul did not respond to The Post’s request for comment about the t൩entative deal.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said he still had to talk with his members about t⛦he proposal, and declined to comment on the agreement when asked by The Post in a Capitol hallway Monday. As of press time Tuesday, Assembly Democrats had yet to discuss the plan in conference behind closed doors.
What the bills mean for parents:
Assuming the bills pass and potential legal challenges fail, parents can expect to gain more power over their kids’ social media habits.
One piece of the proposal requires companies to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent to give kids access to algorithmic feeds, while another bill bans tech firms from selling or otherwise profiting off of minors’ data.
One proposed bill — the “Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act” — will:
- Prohibit social media companies from supplying algorithmic-based “addictive” social media feeds to kids without parental consent. Kids without parental consent would still be able to access content fed to them by social media companies, such as a chronological timeline of posts.
- Give parents the ability to pause notifications on their kids’ social media accounts between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.
- Require social media companies to verify users’ age in a way that doesn’t rely on a government ID.
How age verification will work is upಞ to James, but the system must be “commercially reasonable and technically feasible” on social media platforms, according to the legislation.
James will also be given theꦇ ability to sue social media companies that don’t comply with the threat☂ with cash damages.
“They’re a big part of making this law succeed,” Gounardes said of James.
But t🐬o Julie Samuels, president and CEO of the Tech: NYC♓, a group that has been lobbying against the legislation, the bills are too vague on the crucial matter of age.
“Age verification is the single most important factor in determining 🐓whether this legislation will actually help kids, and the practice of punting complex issues like this to an opaque rulemaking process 🅺has proven to be an ineffective form of lawmaking,” she told The Post.
A spoke🐻sperson for Meta, the📖 company that owns Facebook and Instagram, argued the legislation would leave teens inconsistently protected because it focuses on apps rather than the online stores where they are downloaded.
“There’s a better way,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Legislation should require app stores to get a parent’s approval before their child downloads any app, allowing parents to oversee and approve all their teen’s online activity in one place🐼.”
‘Children before profit’
Effective or not, New York’s path toward an online social media law is likely to have nationwide ripples, similar to when California imposed strict vehicle emissions standards that other states adopted.
In fact, California lawmakers are pursuing similar social media restrictions, and could put them up for a vote in the fall, said Danny Wei♏ss, chief advocacy officer at Common Sense Media, which supports the bills.
“The idea that you could have bookends on both sides oᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚf tﷺhe country in two of the largest states, with millions of kids, is really significant,” he said.
Social media compa🐻nies would be unlikely to adopt steps such as age verification nationwide without a state such as New York forcing their hand, contended Julie Scelfo, founder of Mothers Against Media Addiction, a group advocating to mitigate tech’s harmful impacts on kids.
“This legislation is going to send the message loud and clear to social media companies that in New York, we put our children before profit,” she said.
“They are just making money hand over fist on the backs of our children, and we can’t allow that anymore. They’re not going to do this on their own the same way tobacco companies didn’t do it on their own, the same way Ford didn’t recall the Pinto on its own.”
Alex Theoret, a dad to two young sons who attend the PS 290 💯elementary school in Ridgewood, said he’d support the law.
“If it wilꦆl protect them or keep them out of harm’s way,” he said.
Teens who spoke to The Post, however, weren’t as supporti𝓡ve﷽.
Vianka Galarza💧, 15, a sophomore at G💝rover Cleveland High School in Queens, was shocked to hear about the potential law.
“What the flip?” Galarza 🧔said. “I feel like that’s so unnecessary. It causes unnecessary problems for teens.”
Additional reporting by Dorian Geiger
