Regulation of the use of social networks for minors in New York

There is a mental health crisis among adolescents, with an increase in rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm, which is why New York authorities are presenting proposals to regulate minors’ access to social networks.

Governor Kathy Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James, State Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic announced a series of proposals that seek to regulate the content that young people have access to and regulate the use of their personal data.

“The statistics are extraordinarily disturbing: suicide rates among adolescents are increasing and diagnoses of anxiety and depression are increasing,” they maintained.

Authorities assured that 97% of adolescents report being online daily and research has found that frequent use of social networks may be associated with long-term developmental damage.

In addition, they said in a press conference, studies have found a link between excessive use of social networks, poor quality of sleep and poor mental health among young people. This legislation was generated because, according to authorities, New York minors are presenting record levels of anxiety and depression, and digital platforms are part of the problem, since they use functions to make them stay longer on their applications and become addictive, warned New York Attorney General Letitia James.

For this reason they presented a bill that seeks the following:

The SAFE for Kids Act will require social media companies to restrict the addictive features of their platforms, meaning that algorithms do not work on accounts of those under 18 years of age.

Minors will only have access to a chronological feed that will show them content from the accounts they follow, not other foreign content.

It will allow parents to block minors from accessing social media platforms between 12:00 am and 6:00 am. and will limit the total number of hours per day that a minor spends on the platforms.

It will prohibit social media platforms from sending notifications to minors between 12:00 am and 6:00 am without parental consent.

The fines for not complying with these provisions would be about $5,000 per violation.

This is how social networks will change in New York

According to information from ABC News, Big Apple officials concluded that social networks are generating a mental health crisis among adolescents. Therefore, they announced a new law aimed at restricting algorithms designed for users of this age.

Following this announcement there will now be more tools so that algorithms designed to obtain the personal data of younger users and keep them interested for as long as possible can be detected and eliminated. The goal is to avoid addictions and subsequent mental problems.

Thus, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube will have to make changes to their platforms to, among other points:

• Allow users under 18 years of age to decide if they do not want to receive algorithmic content profiled for them; that is, based on their groups, friends, topics and images they have clicked or shared.
• Design a tool for parents to limit access to social media between 12 and 6 a.m.
• It will be prohibited for platforms to send notifications to minors during the same hours, unless there is parental consent.
• Those companies that refuse to follow these new guidelines could face legal action and civil penalties of up to US$5,000 (equivalent to 1,825.00 Argentine pesos) for each case, according to information from the aforementioned media.

The danger of the use of social networks among adolescents is increasing, families must accompany these changes and supervise minors.

Various specialists have spoken about the risk to mental health in young people who constantly use social networks. As an example, Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general of the United States, said in May this year that he was very concerned that social media was significantly contributing to the pain and struggles faced by many young people, and that the immediate action.

However, both authorities and specialists have shown that social networks do have positive effects, and that there is still not enough research and data to determine whether or not adolescents should use this type of platforms. The current conclusion is that those who spend more than three hours a day connected are more likely to present depression and anxiety.

So far, companies like Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, or Google, the owner of YouTube, have not commented on this new law.

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