A08148 Summary:
| BILL NO | A08148A |
| SAME AS | SAME AS S07694-A |
| SPONSOR | Rozic |
| COSPNSR | Reyes, Shimsky, Magnarelli, Hevesi, Buttenschon, Fahy, Dickens, McMahon, Glick, De Los Santos, Durso, McDonough, Gandolfo, Simon, Zaccaro, DeStefano, Wallace, Berger, Burdick, Seawright, McDonald, Beephan, Smullen, Manktelow, Ardila, Slater, Sillitti, Darling, Brown K, Epstein, Levenberg, Weprin, Bichotte Hermelyn, Lupardo, Mikulin, Paulin, Solages, Tapia, Davila, Burgos, Gunther, Taylor, Zebrowski, Rosenthal L, Jensen, Kim, Giglio JA, Rivera, Cunningham, Zinerman, Maher, Walker, Conrad, Clark, Jackson, Dais, Rajkumar, Fall, Lunsford, Forrest, Lee, Gibbs, Anderson, Lavine, Stern, Gallagher, Dinowitz, Braunstein, Jean-Pierre, Septimo, Kelles, Carroll, Mamdani, Hunter, Barrett, Bronson, Pheffer Amato, O'Donnell, Santabarbara, Cook, Burke, Aubry, Jones, Stirpe, Sayegh, Raga, Gallahan, Thiele, Alvarez, Simone, Eichenstein, Chandler-Waterman, Pretlow, Morinello, Shrestha, Eachus, Meeks, Jacobson, Brabenec, Colton, Norris, Otis, Steck, Tannousis, Walsh |
| MLTSPNSR | Gonzalez-Rojas, Woerner |
| Add Art 45 §§1500 - 1508, Gen Bus L | |
| Establishes the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) For Kids Act prohibiting the provision of addictive feeds to minors by addictive social media platforms; establishes remedies and penalties. | |
A08148 Memo:
Go to topNEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the general business law, in relation to enacting the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids act prohibiting the provision of an addictive feed to a minor PURPOSE: The purpose of this bill is to protect the mental health of children from addictive feeds used by social media platforms. SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS: This bill would prohibit social media platforms from providing an addic- tive feed to children younger than 18 without parental consent and prohibits social media platforms from withholding non-addictive feed products or services where that consent is not obtained. This bill would also prohibit social media platforms from sending notifications concerning addictive feeds to minors between the hours of 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM without parental consent. This bill would authorize both the Attorney General to provide enforce- ment and seek relief, including damages, when social media platforms violate this law. JUSTIFICATION: Addictive feeds are a relatively new technology used principally by social media companies. Addictive feeds show users personalized feeds of media that keep them engaged and viewing longer. Today, they have become the primary way that people experience social media. As addictive feeds have proliferated, companies have developed sophisticated machine learn- ing algorithms that automatically process data about the behavior of users, including not just what they formally "like" but tens or hundreds of thousands of data points such as how long a user spent looking at a particular post. The machine learning algorithms then make predictions about mood and what is most likely to keep each of us engaged for as long as possible, creating a feed tailor-made to keep each of us on the platform at the cost of everything else. Addictive feeds have had an increasingly devastating effect on children and teenagers since their adoption, causing young users to spend more time on social media which has been tied to significant higher rates of youth depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and self-harm. Children are particularly susceptible to addictive feeds, which provide a non- stop drip of dopamine with New York State Assembly Memorandum in Support of Legislation Submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule II I, Sec. 1(f) each new piece of media and are less capable of exercising the impulse control necessary to mitigate these negative effects, which can stunt development and cause long-term harm. Among girls, the association between poor mental health and social media use is stronger than the associations between poor mental health and binge drinking, obesity, or hard drug use. Research shows that spending time on social media is ten times more dangerous than time spent online on non-social media Self-regulation by social media companies has and will not work, because the addictive feeds are profitable, designed to make users to stay on services so that children can see more ads and the companies can collect more data. This bill, therefore, prohibits social media companies from providing children under 18 with addictive feeds, absent parental consent. This bill will still permit those minors to view nonaddictive feeds and any content available on a social media platform, such as feeds listed in chronological order, to ensure that children can still obtain all the core benefits of social media and does not limit social media companies' ability to moderate in good faith to protect children from harmful or otherwise objectionable content. To accomplish this, the bill will require social media companies to use commercially reasonable methods to determine user age. Regulations by the Attorney General will provide more guidance, but this flexible standard will incorporate both the size and sophistication of a given social media company and the generally available technology. Existing New York antidiscrimination laws and the Attorney General's regulations will ensure that social media companies provide age verifi- cation methods all New Yorkers can use and will not use age verification methods that rely solely on biometrics or require government identifica- tion that many New Yorkers do not possess. Research also shows that social media usage at night is particularly harmful to children's health. By prohibiting social media platform notifications to minors between the hours of 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM, it will help to mitigate the harms caused by late night access and the related loss of sleep. This legislation would make clear that New York's millions of children do not have to subject themselves to the risk of serious mental health consequences in order to be able to connect with each other and the world. PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: This is a new bill. FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE: Undetermined but minimal to the State of New York. FISCAL IMPACT ON LOCALITIES: None noted. EFFECTIVE DATE: 180 days after the attorney general promulgates rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the provisions of this act.