New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed landmark legislation Thursday that aims to ban addictive social media feeds for kids.
The “Safe for Kids” bill is meant to crackdown on apps — such as TikTok and Instagram — that use algorithms to keep children glued to their phones, and then profiting off that data.
The milestone law, passed by state lawmakers in Albany earlier this month, is almost certain to receive pushback from Big Tech companies.
Google and Meta spearheaded a costly effort to tank the Empire State legislation — with the lobbying battle estimated to have surpassed $1 million as of last month, public disclosures showed.
The bill is set to go into effect 180 days after Attorney General Letitia James, who pushed for the legislation, establishes guidelines to determine the age of the user and a mechanism to determine parental consent.
“Our children are enduring a mental health crisis, and social media is fueling the fire and profiting from the epidemic,” James said when the legislation was passed.
Under the new law, children will only be able to see a chronological timeline of posts in social media apps if they don’t have parental consent to view the “addictive” algorithmic feeds.
Parents will also have the ability to pause notifications on their kids’ social media accounts between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.