N.Y. governor signs bills to protect children on social media

June 20 (UPI) -- New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a pair of bills on Thursday aimed at protecting kids on social media, joining a growing chorus of officials calling for more oversight of the effects online platforms have on young people.

The new laws will attempt to stave off the negative effects the platforms are having on the mental health of kids and teens by regulating how much data the social media companies can collect and how they can use that information.

The new laws will also prevent social media operators from installing addictive features for minors without parental consent under The Safe For Kids Act.

They would also be prohibited from collecting, using or selling personal data of kids and teens without consent under the Child Data Protection Act.

"Today, we save our children," Hochul said during the press conference.

Hochul said the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on kids' mental health as closed schools and physical isolation pushed them to spend more time online, much of it unsupervised and unregulated, furthering the need for rules governing the platforms and their effects.

Hochul has called on Congress to take action on a national level and she signed the bills in the same week that U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for warning labels to be added to popular online social media sites in an opinion column for The New York Times, advising users that social media has been linked to mental health risks for adolescents.

"The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency -- and social media has emerged as an important contributor," Murthy wrote in the essay.

"Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies," he said.

Congress has considered legislation that would put rules in place for how tech platforms operate for teens and kids, but so far have failed to take any action.