Add Art 45-A §§1520 - 1526, Gen Bus L; add §7.48, Ment Hyg L
Requires warning labels on social media platforms which provide an addictive feed, autoplay, infinite scroll, like counts, and/or push notifications; directs the commissioner of mental health to design the warning label.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5346
SPONSOR: Rozic TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law and the mental hygiene law, in
relation to requiring warning labels on addictive social media platforms
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this bill is to require addictive social media platforms
with certain predatory features to post warning labels on their plat-
forms
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one of this bill provides legislative intent.
Section two of this bill adds a new Article 45-A to General Business Law
to require addictive social media platforms which feature predatory
features such as algorithmic feeds, push notifications, autoplay, infi-
nite scroll, and/or like counts as a significant part of the provision
of their service to post warning labels for all users upon access to the
platform. The bill features a series of specific exemptions for certain
types of notifications that fall beyond the scope of the bill (i.e.
those explicitly requested by a user or which are deployed for civic
communication). More broadly, the bill also exempts any feature which is
determined by the Attorney General via regulation to be Offered for a
valid purpose unrelated to prolonging use of the addictive social media
platform.
The specific content and duration of the warning label would be deter-
mined by the Commissioner of Mental Health, as described in section
three of the bill, but social media platforms would be barred from
including the labels exclusively in the terms of service of the plat-
form, obscuring the visibility of warning labels, displaying warning
labels at a time or for a duration other than that prescribed by the
Mental Health Commissioner, or deploying any other design feature or
mechanism which serves to inhibit the purpose of this act. The Attorney
General would be responsible for enforcing violations by pursuing a
$5,000 civil penalty per violation.
Section three of this bill adds a new section 7.48 to Mental Hygiene
Law, which would require the Commissioner of Mental Health to design the
social media warning label created by this act. The Commissioner would
base the design on available medical and sociological research, includ-
ing from government publications and peer-reviewed scholarly articles,
on the impact of social media on the social, emotional, and physical
health of users. The Commissioner would be empowered to update the text
of the warning, label on an annual basis so that it reflects any chang-
ing developments or new findings in such research. The Commissioner
would also draft regulations prescribing at what point during a user's
use of the platform the label should appear and how long such label
should remain on display, based on factors such as the effectiveness of
the label and user response.
The Commissioner would be required to issue an annual report of their
findings and how such findings informed the drafting of the regulations
described herein.
Section fora creates a severability clause. Section five sets the effec-
tive date.
JUSTIFICATION:
On June 17th, 2024, the US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy published an
op-ed calling for an official surgeon general warning label on social
media platforms, similar to those that already exist for other poten-
tially harmful products like alcohol or tobacco (Murthy, Vivek H.
"Surgeon General: Why I'm Calling for a Warning Label on Social Media
Platforms." The New York Times, 17 June 2024, www, nytimes
com/2024/06/17/opinion/social-media-hea th-warning.html.) A few months
later, attorneys general from 42 states echoed this call, citing the
growing body of research that links young people's use of social media
with serious psychological harms such as anxiety, depression, suicidal
ideation, and insomnia (National Association of Attorneys General. Re:
Requiring a Surgeon General's Warning Label on Social Media Platforms.
National Association of Attorneys General, 9 Sept. 2024.). And a few
months earlier, in June•2024, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the
nation's first social media warning label, HB24-1136, into law.
In calling for social media warning labels, our nation's leading public
health official cited the well-known statistic that adolescents who
spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk
of anxiety and•depression. The average daily use in this age group, as
of the summer of 2023, meanwhile, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly
half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their
bodies. About half of adolescents also claim that social media makes
them feel sad, depressed, lonely, or isolated, and teenagers with the
highest levels of social media use are nearly twice as likely to rate
their overall mental health as poor or very poor.
This bill would require the Office of Mental Health (OMH) to study these
and other documented harms in designing the text of the social media
warning label, which must be informed by the findings of the latest
available medical and sociological research. Many of the world's largest
social media companies claim that their products cannot credibly be
correlated with poor user mental health, citing conflicting studies to
poke holes in this large and growing consensus from parents, educators,
psychologists, and any sentient being that has ever observed a I
5-year-old . with a smartphone. But if this is truly the case, those
findings would be reflected in the research and thus text of the warning
label that OMH designs. If, however, the Commissioner does find evidence
of harm, the warning label would communicate such harm.
Consumer warning labels are already found on a variety of different
products, such as: tobacco, where they communicate the health risk of
cancer; plastic packaging, where they communicate the risk of suffoca-
tion for small children; certain high-sugar and -sodium food products,
where they communicate the risk of diabetes, obesity, tooth decay, heart
disease, or stroke; alcohol, where they communicate the risk of birth
defects during pregnancy as well as the dangers of driving while drunk;
and video games and other types of media, where they communicate the
risk of flashing lights for users with photosensitive epilepsy. It is
therefore common sense that, if the data points to a connection between
extensive social media use and poor mental health outcomes, such health
outcomes should also be communicated to users in a way that allows them
to instinctively and easily understand the risks associated with
prolonged use.
Additionally, as this bill covers only social media platforms that
deploy addictive features such as algorithmic feeds, push notifications,
autoplay, infinite scroll, and like counts, any platform not wishing to
display a warning label could simply limit their use of these features.
This bill represents a commonsense approach to the real and growing
threat posed by a product designed to maximize user engagement rather
than safeguard user health. If properly deployed, social media warning
labels will lead to a more informed and aware user base and healthier
social media habits, putting users back in control of their digital
destinies.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill in the Assembly.
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after the
office of the attorney general and office of mental health shall promul-
gate rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the provisions of
this act.
