New York State recently passed a new regulation that requires social media platforms to display prompts similar to cigarette health warnings on features deemed to be addictive or predatory, focusing on reminding that such features may harm the mental health of teenagers.
The bill, which was voted by the New York State Legislature in June and signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochu on Friday, applies to any platform that offers features such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, like counting or algorithmic feeds. Once a user comes into contact with these functions for the first time, the platform must immediately pop up a warning message and prompt it again regularly during subsequent use.
Hochu said in a statement that since taking office, "keeping New Yorkers safe" has been his top priority, which also includes preventing social media features that encourage excessive use and may cause psychological harm to children. The law stipulates that as long as the relevant platform is accessed in New York State, the warning obligation must be fulfilled. The previous year, Huo Chu had signed two bills aimed at protecting minors from the negative influence of social media, which constituted an extension and upgrade of New York State’s supervision of minors’ online environments.
Concerns about the impact of social media on adolescent mental health have continued to heat up around the world in recent years, and governments in many countries and states are speeding up the adoption of legislation to intervene. California in the United States has proposed a similar social media warning label bill, while Australia this year became the first country in the world to officially ban children from using social media, and Denmark is also advancing the legislative process to ban users under the age of 15 from using social media.
At the U.S. level, the public health department of the federal government also issued a warning: The U.S. Surgeon General has previously publicly called for social media to be included in warning label management similar to cigarettes, and cited multiple research data to point out that teenagers' frequent use of social platforms is related to an increased risk of anxiety and depression. Experts emphasize that the risk of social media to the mental health of children and adolescents is a complex result of the superposition of multiple factors. The relevant impact mechanisms are still under continuous research, including addictive design, comparison and bullying culture, sleep interference, and the amplification effect of algorithm recommendations on emotions, etc.
After the implementation of New York State's new regulations, large platforms such as Meta, Snap, and TikTok will be directly restricted. At present, the relevant companies have not publicly responded to this issue. The media has sent requests for comment to multiple platform operators. The industry expects that there may be a new round of competition over the specific content of the warning text, triggering frequency and technical implementation methods. It will also push other states and countries to evaluate whether to adopt similar legislative measures.