Announcer: The following segment is sponsored by Harding Mazzotti.
Interviewer: The state senate and assembly have reached an agreement on legislation that would regulate social media feeds for kids. And the bill aims to stymie social media companies’ use of addictive algorithms for users under the age of 18 and profiting from their data. If the bill is passed, it would be the first law of its kind in the U.S. So Paul Harding from Harding Mazzotti is here. Thank you for being here with us.
Paul: Absolutely.
Interviewer: First, can you explain what this proposed legislation would do, exactly?
Paul: Yes, so as I always tell my kids, you know, if something’s free and you’re using the app, then you’re the product. You’re what’s being sold. So here it’s an attempt to limit the amount of conversation or the amount of exposure, the amount of feeds that they can give youth. And it is the first of its kind. I do think that we are at a point now where this isn’t being looked at very, very closely. And I further suspect that we’re going to see this thing pass.
Interviewer: One of the reasons that it’s being looked at so closely is because there are so many different dangers, you know, of social media for kids. What are some of those dangers?
Paul: Well, the latest thing I heard was up to 90% of kids spend constant communication with their apps. I mean, constant. So if you want to influence a population, a young population, that’s how they do it. Right. But now we also see that there’s the mental illness, the addictive behaviors, the suicidal tendencies that are out there, and they directly relate them to social media. So the world’s waking up. And again, this is the first legislative approach to try to reel that in a little bit.
Interviewer: Yeah. You said you suspect that it will pass. So you think a lot of people are in support of this bill? Who’s opposed to it?
Paul: Yeah, that’s the thing. The only people that are going to be opposed to it. We’ve got the governor, we’ve got the attorney general, everybody’s on board legislators. But, you know, it’s a constitutional argument, free speech, that even youth should have access to what they want access to. But I don’t think that’s going to win the day. But that would be the group that would be opposed to it.
Interviewer: Yeah. Well, session is almost over. So what’s next for this bill now?
Paul: Well, if it gets passed today or tomorrow, the governor will sign it and it’ll be law. But then I suspect there’s going to be some, you know, because again, these companies aren’t just going to lay down and go away, that there’s going to be some some some legislation, I’m sorry, there’s going to be some court cases brought. We’re going to see this thing kind of play out in the courts and the whole country and maybe world will be watching.
Interviewer: So this will not be the last that we hear if it does get passed.
Paul: It will, yes, that’s absolutely right.
Interviewer: Exactly. All right. Thank you so much. Well, for more info covered in our weekly What Are Your Rights segments or to send us a story idea, head to our website, CBS6Albany.com.
