NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8314
SPONSOR: Brown K TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring
online products targeted towards children provide certain features to
protect child users
PURPOSE:
Requires online products targeted towards children provide certain
features to protect child users.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: The general business law is amended by adding a new article 2
39-FF to identify child use of online products.
Section 2: Identifies effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
TikTok is a popular social media application or app that is used by
millions of young people around the world. However, TikTok has also been
criticized for its negative impact on young people's mental health and
well-being, such as promoting dangerous weight-loss competitions and
eating disorders, triggering or relapsing eating disorders in young
people who are already in recovery, and leading to problems such as
sleep deprivation, anxiety, and depression. Parental controls by social
media are needed to protect those under the age of 18. Recently, a
Buck's County, Pennsylvania lawsuit provided the following evidence:
"TikTok's algorithm quickly gave users to content they'll watch for as
long as they'll watch it. For example, TikTok streamed gambling videos
to a bot registered to a 13-year-old after it first searched for and
favorited several such videos. When the bot began demonstrating interest
in weight loss videos, the algorithm adapted quickly." According to
Alyssa Moukheiber, a treatment center dietitian, "TikTok's powerful
algorithm and the harmful streams of content it directs at young users
can tip them into unhealthy behaviors or trigger a relapse."
The Bucks County lawsuit claims that social media has created a mental
health crisis, injuring the public's health and safety and interfering
with the operations, use and enjoyment of the life and/or the free use
of property of entire communities or neighborhoods. Based on these
findings, parents and guardians have the right to have access to safety
features that will permit them to monitor and control content that
underage children can access. This bill will help to protect young
people from the negative impacts of TikTok and other social media appli-
cations on their mental health and well-being by increasing parental
controls and establishing mandatory screen time limits for those under
18.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it
shall have become a law and shall apply to all online products targeted
towards child users in this state which are made available to the public
or which are updated on or after such effective date. Effective imme-
diately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rules or regu-
lations necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective
date are authorized to be made on or before such effective date.
