New York Governor Kathy Hochul today signed a bill that would give parents the ability to block their children from seeing posts suggested by a social media platform’s algorithm, a move that addresses a years-long concern around the negative effects of social media on the nation’s youth.

A second bill will address the problem of data collection, limiting how platforms might use, share or sell someone’s personal data if they’re under the age of 18. New York will become the first U.S. state to adopt such laws.

“We can protect our kids,” Hochul said at a bill-signing ceremony in Manhattan. “We can tell the companies that you are not allowed to do this, you don’t have a right to do this, that parents should have say over their children’s lives and their health, not you.”

This is by no means the only time a politician in the U.S. has spoken in a language that suggests there is an us-versus-them situation going in which they have to save the youth from bottom line-focused social media giants. Earlier this year, chief executives of the biggest platforms were lambasted by Congress over what their products might be doing to children. Just this week, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy compared the dangers of social media to smoking and obesity.

New York state Attorney General Letitia James is now responsible for coming up with the mechanisms for verifying a user’s age and parental consent. Once the rules and mechanisms have been approved, social media companies will have 180 days to comply.

“Addictive feeds are getting our kids hooked on social media and hurting their mental health, and families are counting on us to help address this crisis,” said James. “The legislation signed by Governor Hochul today will make New York the national leader in addressing the youth mental health crisis and an example for other states to follow.”

While much of the U.S. is rightly concerned over how social media might be hurting the minds of the youth in what’s being called a mental health crisis, free speech advocates have aired their own concerns about limiting the use of social media for the young.

“When you regulate access to social media, you’re regulating access to speech, and the First Amendment binds the government to protect the free-speech rights of children as well as adults,” former attorney David French, now a New York Times columnist, said in an op-ed for the Times earlier this year.

He’s not alone. Today, Carl Szabo, vice-president and general counsel of NetChoice, called New York’s new laws “an assault on free speech and the open internet.” He added that what the bills really mean is the ability for the government to “track” and “censor” online activity.

Photo: Freepik