ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The New York state Legislature on Friday approved a bill that would allow parents to prevent their children from receiving social media posts suggested by a platform’s algorithm — a regulation that attempts to restrict feeds that critics argue are addictive to children.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is expected to sign the bill into law.
The move comes amid growing concern about social media use among children and a growing effort to regulate technology platforms in different ways at the state and federal levels.
In practice, the project would prevent platforms from showing posts suggested for people under 18, content that the legislation describes as “addictive”. Instead, kids would only receive posts from accounts they follow. A minor may still be able to obtain the suggested posts if they have what the bill defines as “verifiable parental consent.”
It would also prevent platforms from sending notifications about posts suggested to minors between midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent.
O legislation Attorney General tasks Letícia James, who pushed for the bill, with the creation of rules to determine user age and a mechanism to determine parental consent. The bill would take effect 180 days after James establishes those guidelines.
“Our children are facing a mental health crisis and social media is fueling the fire and profiting from the epidemic,” said James.
As with any regulatory effort against social media companies, New York’s bill has drawn strong resistance from the tech industry, which argues it unconstitutionally censors sites. There were also doubts from critics about how age verification would work and whether this process would harm the privacy of young users.
Some platforms have chosen to add parental controls to their sites as regulatory pressure has increased. Meta, the parent company of social media giants Instagram and Facebook, last year unveiled tools that allow parents to set time limits and monitor how much time their children spend on Instagram, among other things.
Other states have taken steps to regulate social media use among children, with mixed results. Utah revised its restrictions on young people on social media earlier this year after they were challenged in court. In ArkansasA federal judge has blocked a policy that requires parental consent for minors to create a social media account.
At the federal level, lawmakers have held several congressional hearings on child safety on social media but have not passed comprehensive legislation on the issue.
The New York State Assembly gave the account final passage on Friday. The state Senate approved it on Thursday.
