New York Introduces New Bill Prohibiting Addictive Social Media Content for Minors

New York is trying to limit the access of addictive social media content to kids. The state legislature recently passed a bill on Friday that will prevent social media apps from showing “addictive content” to users under 18 unless they have parental consent.

The bill was sponsored by the following people:

Gov. Kathy Hochul is yet to sign the bill but considering she posted a statement in favor of the bill when it was passed, it’s very clear that it will soon become a law.

‘New York is leading the nation to protect our kids from addictive social media feeds and shield their personal data from predatory companies’ – Gov. Kathy Hochul

She also added that with this move, they will be taking a step closer to addressing the growing instances of youth mental health crises and creating a safe digital environment for them.

What Does This New Law Mean?

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act will require social media companies like Instagram and TikTok to change the type of algorithm they use for underage users. Instead of the usual recommendation-based algorithm, it will now have to use a reverse chronology algorithm.

On the other hand, reverse chronology means the content is simply shown based on the time of posting – newest to oldest – no personal preferences are taken into account.

There was another clause in the bill that banned companies from sending notifications to kids between 12 am and 6 am. But an amendment on Monday removed this provision.

At the heels of this new bill, a second law was introduced in New York – the New York Child Data Protection Act. This prevents online sites from collecting activity data of underage users unless they have their consent.

What Do Social Media Companies Have to Say about This?

Meta released a statement saying that although it doesn’t agree with all the clauses mentioned in the bill, it will continue to cooperate with policymakers to find some common ground and create a safe environment for underage users. It also congratulated New York on being one of the first states to pass legislation on this matter.

It believes that since this act will require the platforms to censor content unless the user verifies their age with a government ID, this law might pave the way for the government to keep a tab on what sites or content a user sees.

As per a study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, social media companies like Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube earned a whopping $11 billion from advertising to minors. So these reactions are quite natural.

A similar action was also seen in Canada in March when four school boards sued Meta, ByteDance, and Snapchat for harming young minds. The lawsuit accused these social media giants of designing their systems in such a way that promotes compulsive use and rewires the way children behave and think.