The governor of New York has signed a bill that will prohibit social networks from suggesting content to minors from accounts they do not follow while blocking notifications between midnight and six in the morning for the same age group. They will only be able to suggest that content and allow notifications with express parental permission.
Parents will have greater control of their children’s social networks
It is not a trend that only affects one country, but is global. One of the countries where there is the most debate is the United States, specifically in New York.
Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul approved a bill on Thursday, June 21, that will regulate the suggested content and social media notifications of minors. The bill is called the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and seeks to give parents more control over their children’s feed and notifications.
The law has not come into operation, but is being prepared, as it is a bill. New York Attorney General Letitia James must determine its parameters. Once it is definitively prepared, it will take 180 days to come into effect, the same time that social networks will have to adapt to it. Each breach could cost companies $5,000.
The governor believes that federal legislation for social networks will not arrive soon, so she has chosen to sign the state law, which will only affect the State of New York. “Would anyone hold their breath waiting for a federal solution? Neither do I,” he said ironically at the firm’s press conference.
Another law to limit data collected from minors
It is not the only bill that the governor signed last Thursday. He also signed another whose objective is to limit the data that social networks record of minors. This is called the New York Child Data Protection Act and will go into effect in a year’s time. It will not need the individual approval of the tutors, since it directly regulates social networks.
It’s also not the first time social media has been regulated in New York. The city, not the state, banned its officials from having TikTok installed on their mobiles. On that occasion, it was not done for the safety of minors, but out of fear that ByteDance, owner of the Chinese social network, could obtain sensitive data from the city through its officials and hand it over to the Chinese government.
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