New York lawmakers have passed a pair of bills that restrict how social media companies display content to and collect data on people under 18 — and elected officials are touting the measures as “nation-leading” regulations to protect children, even as enforcement remains to be worked out.
“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 said in a statement on Friday. “Together, we’ve taken a historic step forward in our efforts to address the youth mental health crisis and create a safer digital environment for young people.”
The governor previously supported the bills and is expected to sign them into law. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also backed the legislation and would be charged with enforcing it, said in her own statement on Friday that she hoped “other states will follow suit.”
One of the bills, the SAFE for Kids Act, blocks social media companies like TikTok and Meta from providing algorithm-based content feeds to users under 18, unless those users obtain parental consent. Critics say algorithmic feeds are addictive and can harm children’s mental health. Under the measure, younger users who do not obtain parental consent would see content from accounts they follow on social platforms in the order in which it was posted.
The legislation also empowers the state attorney general’s office to pursue legal action against companies deemed to have violated the restrictions and seek civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation. According to Hochul’s office, it also “calls for the establishment of acceptable age verification and parent consent methods, to be determined by the OAG as part of a rulemaking process once the legislation is enacted.”
The second bill, the New York Child Data Protection Act, bans social media companies from collecting, using, sharing or selling younger users’ personal data, unless the companies “receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the purpose of the website,” the governor’s office said in a release. Similar penalties apply for violations.
Lawmakers in Albany managed to pass the bills during the final days of their 2024 legislative session, after they failed to pass them during the state budget process in April. Hochul, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes of Brooklyn and Assemblymember Nily Rozic of Queens reached an agreement on the measures earlier this week, Gothamist reported.
But the tech industry continues to raise concerns about the bills, particularly over how the ages of social media users would be verified while safeguarding their privacy.
In a statement on Friday, Julie Samuels, president and CEO of industry group Tech:NYC, said that its members — including Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube owner Google — support “protecting children online.”
“However, neither the platforms impacted by these bills nor any of the lawmakers voting on them have any clarity on how age verification will work,” Samuels said. “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.”
In February, New York City sued the owners of TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms for allegedly driving a spike in mental health issues among young people. And earlier this week, Manhattan District Alvin Bragg credited his office for helping get YouTube to crack down on videos that show users how to manufacture and sell illegal guns.
