New York Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D) on Thursday announced he is introducing two pieces of legislation that would require warning labels on social media and give social media users the option to turn off personalized feeds.
They’re the latest bills in a movement sweeping through the states to regulate social media platforms in the absence of congressional action and in response to growing concerns about the effects on youth and features designed to keep users scrolling.
Gounardes unveiled the measures at a news conference where he was joined by Assemblymember Alex Bores (D) and a coalition of parent and youth advocates.
“The real reason we’re here is because Congress has failed to act,” Gounardes said. “As long as Congress continues to fail to do their duty to protect its own citizens from the harms created by these companies, it is up to states like New York, like California, like countless others to say, ‘We’re not going to stand idly by.’”
Led by Gounardes, New York lawmakers last year passed a first-in-the-nation parental permission requirement for minors to have an algorithmic social media feed, as opposed to a chronological feed.
California lawmakers passed a nearly identical “addictive feeds” law, which is now on hold pending a tech industry legal challenge. Similar bills have been introduced this year in Hawaii, Virginia and Washington.
Gounardes dubbed last year’s law the Stop Addictive Feeds for Kids Act. This year’s bill is called the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for All Act. A key difference is that Gounardes is expanding his focus to how social media platforms interact with adult users, not just minors.
The bill would require companies that deploy personalized feeds to allow users to turn off algorithmic recommendations and silence notifications. The platforms would also have to give users the option to toggle off autoplay and set screen time limits.
Gounardes said while most of the focus has been on how excessive social media use affects the mental health of minors, he is also concerned about the link between adult social media use and depression.
“Everyone should be empowered to control their own social media feeds,” Gounardes said.
Bores said he will carry the SAFE for All Act in the Assembly.
Gounardes’s bill to require warning labels on “addictive” social media platforms follows the recommendation of former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy wrote an op-ed in June calling for Congress to require a surgeon general warning label on social media advising that “social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”
The concept has also been embraced by California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), who is working with Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D) to pass warning label legislation this year. Last September, 42 state attorneys general called on Congress to pass a warning label requirement.
Goundardes said Assemblywoman Nily Rozic (D) will carry the warning labels bill in the Assembly, as she did with the SAFE for Kids Act last year.
Gounardes introduced a third online safety bill in November. It would require teenagers to get parental approval to access the chat function on gaming and social media platforms with the goal of protecting them from adult predators.
Growing alarm about the addictive nature of social media has spurred action not just in the states, but in Congress and globally. Australia took the dramatic step in November of banning those under 16 years old from social media, although YouTube is exempted.
This week, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Kids Off Social Media Act, which has two primary aims: ensuring kids under 13 cannot access social media and banning algorithmic feeds for teens under 16. Previous efforts in Congress to pass youth online safety measures have failed.
So states have taken the lead with laws that require parental permission for teen accounts and that obligate online platforms to design their products with kids’ best interests in mind. Some have gone further. Florida lawmakers last year barred anyone under 14 from having accounts on most major social media platforms.
In response, the tech industry has filed multiple lawsuits challenging the laws, including Florida’s, mostly on First Amendment grounds.
NetChoice, a leading tech trade group, has spearheaded much of the litigation and won injunctions to block several of the laws. The group was back in court this week challenging a Mississippi law that requires social media sites to verify the ages of users.
But the legal setbacks have not convinced legislators to stand down. Gounardes’s bills are part of a flurry of new proposals introduced this year.
They include a bill from Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford (D) to require parental permission for teens to have a social media account. The measure would also restrict the use of a minor’s personal data to feed an algorithmic recommendation system. And it would require certain features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling be disabled on minors’ accounts.
The issue cuts across party lines. The Indiana Senate recently fast-tracked a bill from Sen. Mike Bohacek (R) to require youth under 16 to get their parents’ permission to have social media accounts.