She said that the applications are to blame for turning “happy-go-lucky kids into teenagers who are depressed,” but Hochul insisted that the legislation she approved would assist. “Today, we save our children,” Hochul declared. “A mental health epidemic affecting young people nationwide is being fueled by compulsive social media use.”
These new regulations may require TikTok and Instagram, among other apps, to take young kids back to the early days of social media, before information was customized based on users’ “likes” and technological.
In an innovative attempt to control algorithmic recommendations, the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act mandates that social media companies and app stores obtain parental agreement before allowing minors under the age of 18 to use apps containing “addictive feeds.”. Even better, the SAFE Act will demand stronger age verification to prevent kids from sneaking through and restrict apps from delivering notifications to child or teenage users between midnight and six in the morning, which is essentially a legal curfew for electronics. The New York Child Data Protection Act, the second statute, restricts the data that app developers may gather about their customers.”By reining in addictive feeds and shielding kids’ personal data, we’ll provide a safer digital environment, give parents more peace of mind, and create a brighter future for young people across New York,” Hochul said.
