Every generation faces defining challenges, and young Americans today are facing an epidemic of despair.
We see it in the crippling sadness and anxiety of our children, families and loved ones; we feel the weight of their pain.
And with each passing day, we learn more about how this pain can be driven by the harmful effects of social media.
Social media was meant to connect us to friends, in a way that brought us closer to one another.
Instead, platforms have become media machines — collecting data on users and curating addictive algorithmic feeds designed to keep people scrolling as long as possible.
Often the most engaging content is psychologically damaging, and it’s hurting our young people.
New York state has an opportunity to do something about this. Inaction is not an option.
Last fall, I unveiled two major pieces of legislation to protect kids from personal data collection and addictive feeds, in partnership with state legislators and the attorney general.
With just two weeks left in the 2024 legislative session, getting these two bills passed in Albany is my top priority.
The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act will require social-media companies to restrict the addictive features on their platforms that most harm young users.
The New York Child Data Protection Act will restrict online sites from collecting, using or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18 without consent.
Hearing countless stories from young people, mental-health professionals and educators across the state have reinforced my commitment to getting this done.
I had the privilege of speaking with Mekka Vasquez, a high-school student from Schenectady County, about the importance of enacting these reforms.
She shared how the constant and inescapable presence of social media affects her life and the lives of her classmates, distracting them from school work and sleep while targeting their greatest vulnerabilities.
As rates of depression and anxiety rise, and as teens like Mekka report feeling overwhelmed and suffocated by the algorithms’ carefully engineered captivity, we must take decisive action to protect them.
The numbers confirm what so many of our youth describe and what we’re seeing in our children’s lives.
Last year, the US Surgeon General issued a public-health advisory about the meaningful risks unregulated use of social media poses to our young people. Teens who use social media more than three hours a day face double the risk of poor mental health outcomes like depression and anxiety symptoms.
Like any tough and important fight — particularly for kids — we’re facing significant, well-funded opposition.
It’s no secret what we are up against: a concerted effort to put corporate profits over the well-being of millions of young people.
But for me, this fight is deeply personal.
In a few years, my granddaughter Sofia will join the millions of children online. Like most kids born in the 21st century, the digital age is all she will know.
We owe it to her generation to put guardrails in place to protect her mental health, just as previous generations did with the pressing issues of their time.
We stopped marketing tobacco to kids. We raised the drinking age. And today, we’re fighting to protect kids from the defining problem of our time.
But the legislation is not just about preventing the worst. It is a recognition that young New Yorkers today have more opportunities to succeed than ever before.
We have an opportunity to set an example for generations to come, and we won’t back down from this fight — our kids deserve nothing less.
Kathy Hochul is the governor of New York.
