A bill to add a warning label to social media platforms cleared the state Legislature this week.
The Assembly passed the bill on Tuesday — its final day in session. The bill passed the Senate last week with bipartisan support.
“This new legislation is all about transparency. It's about accountability and ultimately empowering families to make healthier choices about their social media use,” said Assemblymember Nily Rozic, a Queens Democrat who sponsored the Assembly bill. “So if a kid sees a warning label, or for a parent sees a warning label, you know they think twice before staying on the social media platform for another hour, or another hour or another hour.”
The legislation mirrors an advisory last year by former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy who highlighted “significant mental health harms” of social media platforms, especially for teenagers whose brains are still developing.
If signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, social media companies would be required to add a warning label that appears when users open the app or access the platform.
That label would highlight the negative mental health effects of excessive use of apps that use features designed to keep people engaged. Those include algorithmic feeds, infinite scrolls and like counts — which the authors of the bill say are designed to produce dopamine loops and are inspired by a “variable reinforcement schedule” akin to gambling slot machines.
“Beyond the oft-cited side effects of depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia, leaked company documents reveal that social media companies knew that compulsive use of their products was also associated with ‘loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, (and) empathy,’” according to the bill language.
The warning label would be designed by the state mental health commissioner, and it would show up when users open or access the social media platform.
"When Big Tobacco was killing thousands of Americans, we stepped in with smart, thoughtful regulations to save lives. It’s time to do the same with Big Tech,” said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsors the senate bill.
“This is about enabling New Yorkers to reclaim control of their own lives from big corporations," he said. "This is about ensuring the internet is a tool that serves us, not the other way around.”
Several other state legislatures have passed similar bills, including Colorado last year and Minnesota earlier this month.
