"The bills, the New York Child Data Protection Act and the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act (which doesn’t appear to have text live just yet), incredibly seem to be taking a page from equally censorial bills that have already been ruled unconstitutional in places like Arkansas and California. The SAFE bill is actually quite similar to a bill in Utah, which hasn’t been challenged yet, but I have to believe it will be soon, and it’s equally unconstitutional. Incredibly, the Data Protection Act itself cites the bill in Utah AND California’s Age Appropriate Design Code even though that bill has already been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge! Incredible."
"As with Utah’s bill, New York’s SAFE Act will require parental consent for anyone under age 18 to have a social media account, which means that if you’re an LGBTQ+ child and your parent disapproves of your identity, they can cut you off from your community support."
"It will also require “default chronological feeds” rather than algorithmically generated feeds, even though a recent study of chronological feeds found that they expose users to more misinformation than algorithmic feeds."
I'm more ambivalent on this one. If it's an option, then someone can just switch from one feed to another, if the default option is not serving them well. Though, if there's no evidence it does anything, it's questionable for the government to come in and micro product design.
"As for the Data Protection Act, it will require age verification (since it says sites have to treat those under 18 differently), and, as we’ve seen with the rulings in California and Arkansas (not to mention multiple past Supreme Court rulings), that’s just blatantly unconstitutional as it ends up limiting adult access to content as well."
Yes, that is troublesome. If they're going to do some sort of privacy law, then it might be better to go down the avenue of pushing higher privacy standards for everyone, rather than carving out special ones for minors (which first requires determining who is a minor).
