Bills restricting social media advance amid continued legal battles
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New York lawmakers just passed legislation to ban the use of algorithm-driven feeds for minors without their parents’ permission, while Utah’s law is facing more legal action over its age verification requirements.
As legal action rumbles on against one state’s law to regulate young people’s use of social media, another state is advancing its own law to curb the platforms’ habit-forming practices.
The New York legislature last week voted to approve the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act, with Gov. Kathy Hochul soon expected to sign the bill into law given her support for it.
The SAFE for Kids Act bans social media platforms in the state from providing algorithm-driven feeds to children under 18 without parental consent. It would additionally prohibit the platforms from withholding feed products or services that are “non-addictive,” like a chronological timeline, when that consent is not obtained.
Under the proposed law, parents would have to consent to allow social media platforms to send notifications to their children’s accounts between midnight and 6 a.m. It would authorize the attorney general to obtain relief via damages and other means if the companies violate the law.
The SAFE for Kids Act goes hand-in-hand with the New York Child Data Protection Act, which also passed recently and protects minors from having their personal data accessed. These two bills represent the “first significant advancement in online child protection in New York since the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) went into effect in 2000,” assembly lawmakers said in a statement.
Supporters praised the legislation, saying it would protect minors from addictive algorithms and predatory data collection. Plus, it may reduce some of the mental health issues young people are facing as a result of social media.
“Our children are enduring a mental health crisis, and social media is fueling the fire and profiting from the epidemic,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement released by the New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie this month.
“I want our children—my children—to live in a world where Big Tech doesn’t profit at their expense,” state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, who sponsored the legislation, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “The time to create a safer internet is now.” In a written statement, Gounardes said the bill is a “huge deal for the entire country,” adding that “a safer digital world is possible and we refuse to accept the cynicism that says otherwise.”
Some outside groups are also heartened by the legislation. Mothers Against Media Addiction, which describes itself as a grassroots movement that supports “a world where real life experiences remain at the heart of childhood,” said the bill will “set a new standard for online protection & children's privacy.”
Others are not convinced, however. The Chamber of Progress, a progressive technology organization, said late last month that the SAFE for Kids Act faces a “legal minefield” and is likely to be challenged on First Amendment grounds for its potential to restrict speech and interfere with platforms content curation decisions.
“New York’s digital legislation is going to backfire on the teens that it’s supposed to protect,” said Chamber of Progress CEO Adam Kovacevich. “Algorithms are an important tool for curating social media feeds and removing hate and harmful content from teenagers’ feeds. By banning algorithms and deciding what social media sites get to publish, New York’s digital legislation is likely headed for a First Amendment showdown.”
The Chamber cited a recent survey from nonprofit Common Sense Media, which found that teenagers are overwhelmingly in favor of their feeds being curated by algorithms. More than 75% of social media users aged 14 to 22 said they used tools to block content they did not want to see in their feeds.
Meanwhile, Utah’s move to regulate minors’ social media use still faces legal difficulties. Even after amending its first-in-the-nation legislation earlier this year and pushing the effective date to Oct. 1, the state must now battle against an amended lawsuit from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
The amended complaint argues that the Utah law’s age verification requirements for users will “silence the voices of minors and anyone who refuses to provide proof of age,” a FIRE spokesperson said in an email.
“The various restrictions on minors' social media accounts significantly restrict constitutionally protected speech,” the spokesperson continued. “Minors have First Amendment rights, and Utah’s attempt to place parameters on their online speech is unconstitutional.”
Against that backdrop, national discussions continue about how to protect children from the worst of social media. The Kids Online Safety Act is still pending in Congress and received a subcommittee markup last month, but further progress could be tricky in an election year.
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