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A08314 Memo:

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.
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