NY On Track to Protect Teens from Social Media Algorithms

Social Media, ,

Last week the New York Legislature passed a measure to protect teens on social media.

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act prohibits social media platforms from letting children younger than 18 access addictive social media feeds without parental consent. In practice, the law is intended to help ensure children don’t receive social media content suggested to them via algorithms.

Researchers have found social media algorithms on platforms like TikTok actually serve teens what some call a steady “diet of darkness” online.

The Arkansas Attorney General’s office is suing TikTok and Meta — the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

The A.G.’s lawsuits cite evidence that social media algorithms promote objectionable content to children and harm their mental health.

Social media platforms aren’t just websites. These are multimillion dollar businesses owned and operated by adults.

The adults who operate these social media platforms should not be able to register children as users and promote content to them without — at the very least — parental consent. 

As we have said before, there’s mounting evidence that social media puts users’ personal information at risk is actually designed to push objectionable content to users. With that in mind, it’s good to see policymakers taking action to protect children online.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Pornography Harms Children

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Live Action recently released a video featuring Matt Fradd explaining how he became addicted to pornography when he was just 8 years old — leading to a decade long battle to overcome his addiction. Today he is one of the leading speakers on the harms of pornography.

Stories like this underscore the importance of legislation like Arkansas passed in 2023 requiring pornographic websites to use a government-issued ID or a commercially available age verification method to protect kids from pornographic material.

You can watch the video below.

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Arkansas Authorities Investigating Possible AI-Generated Images of Child Sexual Abuse Material

Technology, , ,

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette recently reported police have charged an Amity man with possessing child sexual abuse material — some of which may have been generated through artificial intelligence.

The article says AI-generated child sex abuse material is not against state law, but in 2001 the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 1496 addressing computer exploitation of a child.

The law generally makes it a felony to produce or reproduce child sexual abuse material “by computerized means.”

At the time there was serious discussion about how computers and computer software could be used to manufacture child sexual abuse material.

Of course, in 2001 very few people could have imagined the artificial intelligence technology that exists today, but lawmakers recognized the need to address the issue — and Family Council supported the good law they passed.

As technology changes and artificial intelligence advances, lawmakers likely will need to enact new legislation to protect children.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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