NY Parents Join AG James and Sen Gounardes in Albany, Calling On Lawmakers to Keep Children Safe Social Media

ALBANY, NY (03/19/2024) (readMedia)-- On Wednesday, Attorney General Letitia James, Senator Andrew Gounardes, and Assemblymember Nily Rozic will join New York parents, educators, lawmakers, and advocates in the State Capitol to rally for common sense regulations designed to make social media safer for kids. Organizations in attendance will include Common Sense Media, New York State United Teachers, Mothers Against Media Addiction, the National Urban League, the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and more. Parents and advocates are supporting the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act (SAFE For Kids Act) and the New York Child Data Protection Act and demanding accountability from Big Tech companies, notorious for maximizing their profits at the expense of their youngest users. While Big Tech companies publicly say they plan on improving their platform for teens, behind the scenes they spent well over $650k dollars to lobby against the two pieces of legislation.

BACKGROUND:

Parents in New York, and across the country, are noticing an immediate hit to their childrens' mental health once they begin using social media, and countless studies confirm the correlation between prolonged use of social media and mental health issues. According to recent research, youth who spend more than three hours a day on social media (the average for overall Internet use is almost nine hours a day, not including time for homework) double their risk for depression and anxiety. But according to a recent study by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, social media platforms like Instagram and Tiktok collectively generated just short of $11 billion in ad revenue from users under 18 during 2022. The study underscores the significant financial incentive social media platforms have to keep teens online for long periods of time.

Despite endless studies showing the increased rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm among children and teens online, social media companies like Meta have only invested in tools to keep them online for longer. Senator Gounardes is urging the Executive and Legislature to prioritize the two pieces of legislation in the final State Budget, to protect users under 18 from addictive algorithms and data collection.

Click here for more information on the legislation to keep kids safe online.