New York Attorney General Letitia James recently joined a bipartisan coalition of 32 attorneys general calling on Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would protect children from emerging technologies including some of the most dangerous features employed by social media companies.
In a letter to congressional leadership, James and the coalition urged Congress to include a provision in KOSA guaranteeing that it would not preempt any state laws with stronger protections, given the strength of the nation-leading legislation advanced by Attorney General James to combat addictive social media algorithms in New York. With other states advancing legislation inspired by New York, such a provision would help ensure a guaranteed baseline of protection for American youth, while still enabling states like New York to have strong safeguards in place.
James advanced legislation, introduced by Senator Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblymember Nily Rozic (D-Flushing), and signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul, enables the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to draft rules that will better protect children’s online privacy, and take action against addictive algorithmic feeds being utilized for social media accounts of underage users. The SAFE for Kids Act, which was the first bill of its kind signed into law in the United States, will require social media companies to restrict addictive feeds on their platforms for users under 18, as well as overnight notifications, unless parental consent is granted.
The New York Child Data Protection Act will prohibit online sites from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18, unless they receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the purpose of the website. It also authorizes OAG to enforce the law and seek damages or civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation. Both laws will take effect once the rulemaking process underway by OAG is completed.
Attorney General James and the bipartisan coalition emphasized the need for federal action to respond to the national youth mental health crisis, which is in large part caused by social media companies targeting minors. The coalition noted that social media companies profit by making their platforms addictive for children and then sell minor user data to advertisers, without disclosing any potential risks to users or their parents. With children spending an average of more than five hours a day online, the attorneys general are calling on Congress to act swiftly to establish better safeguards for minors online.
If passed, KOSA would disable some of social media platforms’ most addictive features, including auto-play for videos and platform rewards, and would give young people and their parents the ability to opt out of algorithmic recommendations. It would also require online platforms to default to the highest-possible safety settings for all accounts belonging to minors and introduce new tools for parents to better protect their kids online. In today’s letter, Attorney General James and the bipartisan coalition applauded these measures, as well as recent updates to the proposed legislation that better provide for state enforcement.
“Young people everywhere are struggling, and we know that social media is largely to blame,” James said. “That’s why I championed legislation to protect young New Yorkers from these addictive platforms, an effort that I am pleased is being reviewed and replicated in other states. With KOSA, we can establish a foundation of protections for kids nationwide, but we must also ensure states are empowered to introduce more expansive safeguards for their kids as needed. Taking on addictive social media is not a partisan issue – it’s about protecting kids and ensuring that government is able to act effectively at all levels.”