New NYS law aims to protect kids on social media

ALBANY — Social media companies will need to take extra steps to prevent children from accessing personalized feeds and getting nighttime notifications under new rules announced Tuesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James.

The rules under the 2024 SAFE for Kids Act lay out which platforms are subject to the new requirements and outline standards for companies to determine users’ age and obtain parental consent.

"Today, we’re sending a clear message: our kids’ mental health isn’t for sale," Hochul said in a statement. "We promised action and the SAFE For Kids Act is delivering by ensuring that any platform that targets our children with addictive feeds will face legal consequences."

The rules are meant to help protect children from unhealthy social media behaviors. "These rules set standards for age verification and parental control to ensure tech companies are doing their part to keep kids safe on their platforms," James said.

Algorithmically personalized feeds, or addictive feeds, personalize content for users based on data that the platform gathers about the user. They are designed to encourage a user to return to a platform.

Social media use among young children has been linked to negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and eating and sleep disorders.

Bernice Tsai, one of the parents who helped push for the new rules, recalled how her daughter’s personality changed soon after starting to use platforms like TikTok at 14 years old.

"It was shocking and very difficult to see her spiral from being a radiant, vibrant kid to becoming what I would say was almost like zombielike," she said. "But at the same time, she was lonelier. She was less engaged. She was less alive as a human being, so that was very difficult to see."

The SAFE for Kids Act is meant to address those concerns by requiring social media companies to restrict children’s access to addictive feeds.

Under the law, users under 18 will be shown content only from other accounts they follow or otherwise select in a set sequence, such as chronological order, unless they get parental consent for an addictive feed, according to Hochul’s office. The law also prohibits social media platforms from sending notifications to minors from midnight to 6 a.m. without parental consent.

Annmarie Lanesey, founder & CEO of Can Code Communities, said she had struggled to keep her child safe online.

"Children should not be participants in a massive social experiment in which commercial platforms have unprecedented access to their attention, thoughts, vulnerabilities and developing identities, while parents have remarkably little visibility and are left in the dark," she said.

Social media platforms that fall under the law will need to determine that a user is an adult before providing them with a personalized algorithmic feed and nighttime notifications.

Under the rules released Tuesday, they can do that by requesting an uploaded image or video, or by verifying the user’s email or phone number to cross-check other information that reflects a user’s age.

That information can’t be used for any other purpose, according to the rules, and social media companies must use only the minimum amount of data necessary to confirm a user’s age.

Children who want to receive nighttime notifications or algorithmic feeds from their social media will need to request them. And the platform may seek parental consent, which can be revoked. Platforms also can ban children from accessing their content through searches if parents don’t give permission.

The rules will apply to what the state is calling "addictive online platforms," which it defines as those displaying user-generated content and those who have users who spend at least 20% of their time on the platforms’ algorithmic feeds over a six-month period.

Hochul signed the SAFE for Kids Act in 2024 and James’ office was responsible for developing the final rules under the law. The law goes into effect Jan. 25 of next year.

Companies that violate the law could be fined up to $5,000 per violation, and the state Attorney General’s office can seek legal action.