subjecting users under the age of 18 to addictive, algorithm-based feeds<\/a> designed to keep them on the firms’ platforms, unless a parent or guardian provides consent. It also prohibits the companies from providing those same users with push notifications from midnight to 6 a.m.<\/p>\nIf finalized, James\u2019 proposed rules would require the companies to verify a user is at least 18 years old to allow them to access an algorithmic feed, like TikTok\u2019s \u201cFor You\u201d page. The companies would be required to take steps to confirm or estimate a user\u2019s age, such as verifying the user\u2019s government-issued identification.<\/p>\n
For users wary of sharing their ID, the companies would be required to provide at least one other option to confirm age. For example, they could request a selfie or video that can be analyzed to estimate the users\u2019 age, or crosscheck a verified email address or phone number against other records or user history to infer their age.<\/p>\n
The proposals do not mandate any specific type of age verification tool, but do require whatever methods the companies use be subject to regular testing for accuracy and meet specific standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an issue that affects all of us, and I encourage parents, educators, young people, industry groups, and others to review the proposed rules and submit a comment during the public comment period,\u201d James said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill into law last year, arguing addictive social media feeds have had harmful effects on children and teens.<\/p>\n
Under the law, users under the age of 18 would be shown a reverse-chronological feed on social media sites with content only from accounts they follow. Under James\u2019 proposals, it would apply to anyone who voluntarily identifies themself as being under 18, as well as those who refuse to submit to age verification or whose verification shows they\u2019re underage.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 proposed rules would apply to any social media platform whose average monthly users spend at least 20% of their time on an \u201caddictive feed,\u201d defined as a feed of user-generated content tailored to a specific user\u2019s activity.<\/p>\n
The rules are open to public comment through Dec. 1. Then, the attorney general has a year to finalize them. The law itself will take effect 180 days after the rules are finalized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social media companies could soon verify their users\u2019 age in New York by requesting a selfie or a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":229308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-229307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115209622278667823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}