New York Takes Aim at "Addictive" Social Media Feeds for Children

As the effects of social media on young children become increasingly worrisome, different states in the United States of America have endeavored state laws regulating the use of social media in as far as it can be controlled. However, the varied approaches reveal a general concern on how to address social media misuse and protect children on social media platforms.

New Legislation on Child Protective Services in New York

The last state to adopt laws for the protection of children is New York. Last month, Governor Kathy Hochul passed two new bills, including the “Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids” Act and a Child Data Protection Act. These laws are designed to limit the engrossing feeds that are common with social media platforms and to safeguard children’s data.

Particularly, the SAFE for Kids Act is questionable. It seeks to “ban social media apps from displaying an addictive news feed to users under 18 years without their parents’ permission. ” The bill’s authors present an ‘addictive feed’ as the algorithmically-tailored news feeds that keep the users engaged for as long as possible.

Challenges and Implications

The proposed regulations are still on the drawing board and are likely to encounter numerous challenges before they are approved in the shortest time. However, the idea behind such measures is to save teenagers from the possible negative impact of social networking sites.

The negative impact of social media on their youthful counterparts’ mental wellbeing is evident from research studies. Meta’s own research shows that Instagram can harm teenagers’ mental health, even though they later tried to minimise the problem by stating that ‘the only domain where teenage girls who said they faced issues admitted that Instagram harmed them was body image. Other studies also prove that teenagers suffer from mental health problems connected with social media, with negative comparison and bullying being the main concerns.

A number of reasons can be attributed to the need for national regulations, some of which include:

The disparities of state laws further reinforce the fact that there is a need for a systematic strategy across the country. The problem becomes even more problematic when there is no federal framework in place and the social media companies are operating in many states. Currently, there are laws that have been enacted in Florida and Maryland that prohibit teens from creating social media accounts without parental consent and also there are laws that call for the protection of young users data.

Likewise, the state of Montana tried to block TikTok last year citing security threats that are posed by China, but the ban was lifted before it was implemented. Such actions taken at the state level can be seen as signaling mounting discontent with the federal inaction on these matters.

Learning from the EU

On the other hand, European Union has a comprehensive regulation in governing the use of data and child protection for all its member countries. There are certain regulations that have been implemented such as the setting of algorithm-less experiences for users as well as limitations on ads and these have been implemented where social media companies have had to adhere to these regulations.

Consequently, U. S. regulators understand that such measures are possible. In the long run, pressure from state level is also expected to force adoption of similar restrictions in every state. Nonetheless, the best way to resolve it is through a national approach.

The national regulations should be aimed at the age verification mechanism, algorithmic exploitation of teenagers, and limitations on the notification and usage aspects. Although it is correct that pushing has been banned, it should be the White House’s job to define acceptable rules.

Thus, instead of a comprehensive federal solutions, the states are left to their own devices, and many of them will encounter legal issues. Instead, the Senate and other participants of the debate on more universal measures should take these frustrations into account and stress the necessity of the existence of coherent and efficient national policies regarding the protection of children from the negative effects of social media.