Google and Meta lead a group of companies in a lobbying effort against two bills aimed at enhancing online safety for children, the New York Post reported Monday.
The companies, alongside various advocacy groups and businesses from different sectors, have already spent $823,235 through mid-March to influence lawmakers, and this figure is expected to surpass $1 million with the next disclosure, according to New York Post. The legislation in question includes the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act.
“This is an astonishing amount of money to be spent to kill two reasonable bills,” one insider told New York Post.
Meta, Google leading nearly $1M lobbying fight to kill NY online child safety bills https://t.co/Kh0uidmNCO pic.twitter.com/L8ycFesAPx
— New York Post (@nypost) May 20, 2024
The SAFE Act targets social media platforms, proposing that they provide default chronological feeds for users under 18 unless parental consent is obtained, the outlet reported. It also seeks to empower parents to set time limits and control in-app notifications for their children. The Child Data Protection Act focuses on privacy, aiming to prohibit apps from collecting or selling data from users under 18 without their consent, with stricter requirements for children under 13.
“This could be considered ‘historic’ in the sense that the bills are relatively low impact for the state compared with other issues that get a lot of lobbyist attention,” Danny Weiss, supporter of the bill, said, New York Post reported. (RELATED: KOBACH: Liberals Hijack Online Child Safety Bill, Handing Khan-trol To FTC)
These legislative efforts have been endorsed by figures including Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and State Attorney General Letitia James. Governor Hochul has notably described social media as “a silent killer of our children’s generation,” underscoring the perceived urgency of these measures, according to New York Post.
