Albany pols rush to pass plan to restrict ‘addictive’ social media feeds for kids: ‘Not giving up’
Albany pols are rushing to put the finishing touches on proposed legislation meant to crack down on what they call “addictive” social-media algorithms — with a push from Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The state legislators are trying to get the measures passed before the legislative session expires at the end of next week and many begin to furiously hit the campaign trail before November.
“I’d say we’re at the 2 yard-line,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), the bill’s senate sponsor, to The Post on Tuesday.
Hochul, speaking at an event with the Mental Health Association in New York a few miles from the capitol Tuesday, said, “We’re sticking with this fight.
“We’re not giving up,” vowed the governor, a mom of two adult children and a grandmother.
It was the governor’s third public event in the past week touting the proposed legislation.
The measures would bar social-media companies from displaying content for kids using algorithms meant to keep their eyes on the screen. It would also restrict those companies from selling the data of users under the age of 18, as well as mandating that their services offer parental controls.
“The companies are responsible for this,” Hochul said. “This is driven by profit. They also know that there’s negative effects on children, they don’t have to listen to the surgeon general who warned about the effects of this a year ago.”
Social media companies have been spending millions of dollars lobbying against the bill.
Gounardes said he expects lawmakers and the governor to iron out the details of the proposed legislation and get it passed before ditching Albany next week.
“I think it’s a matter of just fine-tuning the language to make sure the language is sharp and good enough to withstand the inevitable legal challenge that I know we’re all expecting to get but that we intend to win,” Gounardes said.
Attorney General Letitia James has also been working on the initiative.
“Social media was meant to connect us to friends, in a way that brought us closer to one another,” Hochul wrote in a column in The Post on Monday.
“Instead, platforms have become media machines — collecting data on users and curating addictive algorithmic feeds designed to keep people scrolling as long as possible.
“Often the most engaging content is psychologically damaging, and it’s hurting our young people,” she said. “New York state has an opportunity to do something about this. Inaction is not an option.”
The governor has called social media the “silent killer” of New York’s young people.
But Big Tech has hit back, claiming the proposed legislation violates freedom of speech and the online privacy of teens, was well as basically doing away with the algorithms that also help to crack down on hate speech.
Hochul and the legislature have already passed a law barring employers from asking potential workers and current employees for access to their social-media accounts.
“Gov. Hochul signed this law to protect the privacy of New Yorkers and protect their rights in the workplace,” her spokesman, Avi Small, said when the bill passed in September 2023.
