Albany gets one right for our kids

“Progress” and “Albany,” unfortunately, have not been synonymous over the past few years, with good reason. Albany has gotten a lot of things wrong: bail reform, reckless spending increases, and energy policy, just to name a few. But sometimes, Albany does something right. Those instances — when Democrats and Republicans come together in good faith to address a problem — are when real progress occurs.

Most recently, that happened when the State Legislature acted to protect our children from the dangerous influence of big tech through social media.

Virtually everyone knows of social media’s enormous influence, both positive and negative, on people of all ages. It has changed dramatically over the years. Once upon a time, your Facebook feed mostly consisted of posts from your friends or pages you chose to follow. Today it’s predominantly ads, sponsored content, and other posts that secretly developed, ever-changing algorithms determine are best suited for you. Basically, they decide what you get to see, with almost no ability for you to change it.

Control at that level is not only frustrating, it’s dangerous. Especially when it comes to children who, given their age and maturity level, are more easily swayed and influenced.

Social media has been tied to significantly higher rates of youth depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and self-harm. Some research found that time spent on social media is 10 times more dangerous than non-social media internet use. Among girls, the association between poor mental health and social media use is stronger than the connections between poor mental health and binge drinking, obesity or hard drug use. Concern about this is nearly universal among parents I speak to.

Self-policing is rarely a recipe for success, but in many ways, that’s what social media companies have been allowed to do. Not surprisingly, it hasn’t worked, because there’s an inherent conflict of interest. Feeds have been specifically designed to create addiction. Addictive feeds keep users on the platform longer, where they see more ads and the company collects more of their data, all directed toward the goal of earning higher profits.

Big Tech’s failure to appropriately self-regulate is endangering children, which is why we needed to act. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and Assembly worked together with Gov. Kathy Hochul on legislation to protect children from some of the harms they’re currently facing.

Under the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, which I cosponsored, social media companies must restrict addictive feeds on their platforms for users under 18 unless parental consent is granted. These feeds are created based on users’ behavior, such as how long they look at certain media or the materials they click on, and are designed to be predictive of what content will keep them on the platform for as long as possible. Companies will also be prohibited from sending notifications about feeds to minors from midnight to 6 a.m. without parental approval.

The Child Data Protection Act, which I cosponsored as well, prohibits online sites from collecting, using, sharing or otherwise processing any personal data of those under 18 without informed consent. Minors’ data cannot be disclosed to third parties without a written binding agreement.

Both bills passed the Legislature with broad bipartisan support and I’m happy to report that Hochul signed the bills into law on June 20.

Protecting children should always be a priority, never a political issue. Thankfully, that’s exactly how this was treated. For all the dysfunction and failures Albany created in recent years, it’s heartening to see that progress is still possible. Let’s hope this is a sign of better things to come.

Steve Rhoads represents the 5th Senate District.