• by Wendy Davis , 10 hours ago

A New York law requiring social media platforms to confirm users' ages and refrain from recommending content to minors based on their personal data will come into effect in January, state Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday.

The Safe for Kids Act, passed in 2024, prohibits social-media platforms from using “addictive feeds” to serve content to minors under 18 unless their parents consent.

The law also prohibits platforms from sending some notifications to minors between midnight and 6:00 a.m. without parental consent.

On Tuesday, James' office published regulations that essentially define "addictive feeds" as content served by social platforms to people based on information persistently associated with them or their devices, or with their previous interactions with user-generated media.

The regulations exempt certain types of device information from the definition of addictive feeds -- including users' privacy and accessibility settings.

The rules also provide that platforms do not need to obtain parental consent before serving content to minors based on their "express and unambiguous user requests," or before displaying content that users subscribe to.

New York is not the only state to attempt to restrict social platforms. At least a dozen other states have passed laws that limit platforms' ability to serve content to minors.

Tech industry organizations have challenged many of those laws, with mixed results. Most district court judges have blocked the laws in response to challenges, but some appellate courts have allowed the laws to take effect.

The most recent appellate decision came last week, when the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibited enforcement of portions of a Texas law that would have required social platforms to filter out potentially "harmful" content to minors, and allowed the state to enforce portions of the law requiring platforms to obtain parental consent before serving targeted ads to minors.

California's Protecting Our Kids From Social Media Addiction Act (SB976) specifically prohibits social platforms from algorithmically recommending posts to minors without their parents' consent.

Google, Meta and TikTok are currently suing to prohibit enforcement of that California's law.