Prohibit Social Media Companies From Providing Children Under 18 With Addictive Feeds.

 

The purpose of this bill is to improve the mental health of children who are known to be harmed by addiction to social

media platforms.

 

Social media companies place addictive feeds on their apps in order to make a profit. Addictive feeds place users into

an infinite cycle of videos or posts that they are drawn to, to keep them using the platform for as long as possible.

The more time a person spends on social media, the more money the company will make. The inverse of this is that social

media companies don’t see or care about the harmful effects children have from these addictive feeds. From these

addictive feeds, children are amplified with confirmation bias, and their feeds are polarized in order to keep them

engaged, but also to confirm their previous beliefs and interests and prevent them from opening themselves to other, new

perspectives. Spending more time on social media has also been linked to higher rates of youth depression, anxiety,

suicidal thoughts, and self-harm. Researchers at the Weill Cornell Medicine College and other universities have found

that there was a two to three times greater risk of suicidal behaviors from high and increased addictive use of social

media compared to low addictive use of social media. Banning addictive feeds would create a place for children to learn

new perspectives and see other people’s interests aside from their own, creating a more educated future for continuing

generations.

 

"Addictive feed" shall be defined as a website, online service, or online/mobile application where media is generated,

recommended, selected, or prioritized for display from information already associated with the user or the user’s

device.

"Social media company" shall be defined as a firm that either provides services to other businesses to help them with

their social media presence or creates technology that helps promote posts on social media platforms.

 

none

 

Any social media company that does not prohibit the addictive feeds from those under 18 will receive a $100,000 fine for

each month they do not fix this. $100,000 is a reasonable amount, as social media companies earn billions every year.

This will be only a fraction to them. The attorney general may investigate and bring an action against a social media

platform for violating this bill.

 

The succeeding January 1st, following the pass date of the bill. This will give social media companies adequate time to

adjust their settings and fix their algorithms.