On June 20, 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act (the “SAFE for Kids Act”) into law. The SAFE for Kids Act imposes new responsibilities on “covered operators”, defined as parties who operate or provide an “addictive social media platform.”
An “addictive social media platform” is defined by the SAFE for Kids Act as a website, online service, online application, or mobile application (“Online Service”) that offers or provides minors in New York an “addictive feed” as a significant part of the services provided by such Online Service.
Addictive feeds, or algorithmically driven feeds, are regulated under the SAFE for Kids Act. The SAFE for Kids Act further defines “addictive feeds” as any Online Service, or portion thereof, where “multiple pieces of media generated or shared by users” are “recommended, selected, or prioritized for display” based on information associated with the user or their device, unless any of the following conditions are met:
The SAFE for Kids Act applies to conduct taking place entirely or partially in New York, with conduct taking place “wholly outside” New York where an addictive social media platform is accessed by a covered minor physically located outside of New York.
The SAFE for Kids Act establishes restrictions regarding the exposure of covered minors to addictive feeds, including age verification requirements and overnight notification restrictions. Covered operators are required to implement age verification mechanisms to determine the age of the users of their addictive social media platforms, and may only provide addictive feeds to a user where they have either employed commercially reasonable and technically feasible methods to confirm that the user is not a minor, or where they have obtained verifiable parental consent to provide an addictive feed to a user that is a covered minor. The SAFE for Kids Act also prohibits covered operators from sending notifications related to an addictive feed to covered minors between 12 AM and 6 AM Eastern Time, unless such covered operator has obtained verifiable parental consent for such overnight notifications. Covered operators are not permitted to withhold, degrade, lower the quality, or raise the price of any product, feature or service to a user due to such operator not being permitted to provide an addictive feed to such user.
No sooner than 180 days after the effective date of the SAFE for Kids Act, the New York attorney general may initiate legal action to:
With the New York attorney general holding exclusive enforcement authority and rulemaking mandates regarding implementation and enforcement of the SAFE for Kids Act, and further regulations regarding enforcement of the SAFE for Kids Act forthcoming, we strongly advise covered operators to consult with data privacy counsel regarding what operational changes need to be put into place to ensure compliance with the SAFE for Kids Act going forward.
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