A few days after the highest health authority in the United States raised the need to warn of the risk of social networks for minors, the governor of New York, Democrat Kathy Hochul, has signed two bills to regulate the algorithms of the networks. digital platforms and the use of children’s data. This unprecedented measure makes New York the first State to regulate social media algorithms by law, while complaints about the addiction allegedly caused by popular platforms such as Instagram and TikTok among young people increase.
Hochul’s signature also comes the same week that Vivek Murthy, the federal health official, called for warning labels like those for tobacco to be applied to social media platforms, fueling the growing debate about the potential impact of these on the mental health of users, especially among adolescents.
The first law, called Stop Addiction Exploitation of Children’s Content (SAFE), requires social media platforms to display content chronologically by default for those under 18 years of age. The second, the New York Children’s Data Protection Law, will prevent websites from collecting or sharing the personal data of children under 18 without their consent, expanding existing federal privacy protections for children under 13.
The first rule also requires platforms to limit app notifications — designed to encourage user participation — late at night, which state lawmakers say can make it difficult to sleep. Both bills were introduced last fall and passed the state legislature in early June. The Capitol in Albany, the seat of the New York State legislature, has welcomed the two measures as a fundamental way to control the influence of social networks on teenagers.
“Today we saved our children,” Hochul said at a press conference. “We have heard their cries for help, reminding us as adults that we have a moral responsibility to protect young New Yorkers from harm and addictive forces.” The policy compared the addiction of networks to tobacco and alcohol, but noted that in this case the harm to users is “depression, anxiety and even suicide.” According to information published this Thursday by the newspaper The Wall Street Journalthe social network Instagram recommends videos with sexual content to accounts of children under 13 years of age, even minutes after opening the application.
The attorney general of New York, also a Democrat Letitia James, elaborated on the benefits of the legislation, which looks squarely at “the most dangerous aspects of social networks, the addictive feeds of algorithms that exploit impressionable minds.” “These bills will empower my office to set standards and ensure that businesses follow them,” James said. The prosecutor’s office must now draft the specific regulations and New York will give companies a period of one year to implement the law.
Opponents of the bill, including the tech industry, argue that the legislation is likely unconstitutional because it violates children’s First Amendment rights and raises other questions about how social media can work in practice. beyond state borders. A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of the social networks Facebook and Instagram, tried to temporize and highlighted the company’s objections to some aspects of the laws, but also welcomed “New York becoming the first state to pass legislation.” that recognizes the responsibility of app stores.” The vast majority of parents, recalls the Meta statement, support requiring parental approval from application stores to download them. “We will continue to work with policymakers in New York and elsewhere to advance this approach,” the company stressed.
Growing awareness of the need to protect mental health, especially of the youngest, is also behind other similar initiatives, such as one from New York City, which in February sued several social networks for “fueling the health crisis.” “youthful mentality”. The complaint, which was filed in California against Google’s TikTok, Meta, Snap and YouTube, argued that the technology companies intentionally manipulate and create addiction to young people. The lawsuit, signed by the City of New York, the Department of Education and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, on which the strained mental health services depend, alleged that these companies intentionally manipulate and create addiction to users of this age group, keeping them attentive to their platforms and causing undesirable effects in their behavior that are ultimately harmful to the development of personality and healthy coexistence with their environment. The accusation was based on three charges, according to the laws of the State of New York: negligence, gross negligence and disorderly conduct.
States such as Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana have passed laws restricting social media companies’ access to teenagers. The industry has challenged some of those laws, and the courts have viewed them with skepticism. This year in Ohio, for example, a federal judge temporarily blocked a law that prohibited online platforms from creating accounts for users under 16 unless they had parental consent, saying the legislation likely violates the First Amendment. Two states, Texas and Florida, have passed laws that would restrict online platforms from moderating their sites; Legal appeals have reached the Supreme Court this term and a decision is expected imminently.
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