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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign bill targeting social media platforms’ algorithm toward teens: “Our kids are in distress”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that social media algorithms have negatively affected children and teens, saying “our kids are in distress” as she is set to sign into law a bill aimed at protecting kids online.
“They’re not living carefree lives because they are being held captive to powerful forces outside their own control — algorithms that are intentionally addictive, intended to pull them in and keep their attention,” Hochul told CBS News in an exclusive interview.
The “Safe for Kids Act,” which Hochul is set to sign Thursday, requires social media companies to restrict “addictive feeds” for social media users under the age of 18. It would also bar notifications from social media platforms related to the feeds between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent. And it would require new age verification and parental consent tools to be set by the state’s attorney general.
Hochul said the measure targets algorithms in particular because “in order to liberate our children, we have to get right to the source of the trauma that’s being inflicted on them.”
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But a group representing tech companies has pushed back, arguing that the law will violate the Constitution’s First Amendment by censoring free speech online. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, told CBS News in a statement that while it doesn’t support every aspect of this bill, it supports legislation requiring app stores to obtain parental approval to obtain apps. TikTok declined to comment.
The Democratic governor said that although the approach is “novel,” she added that “we’ve checked to make sure we believe it’s constitutional.”
Hochul said that with the change to the law, the social media companies will be put “on notice.”
“The first start is to just change the law, put the companies on notice that it’s a new day in New York,” she said. “We’re here standing with our children.”
The new law is set to take effect 180 days after New York Attorney General Letitia James solidifies its exact rules and guidelines. James can then fine social media platforms that are out of compliance up to $5,000 per violation.
The development comes as related issues have gained traction elsewhere in recent days, amid a broader push to address social media use among children. The U.S. surgeon general earlier this week suggested that Congress should create a warning label, like it would for addictive products like cigarettes, on social media for teens. And the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest public school system in the country, voted to ban students from using cell phones during school hours.
But the moves haven’t been without pushback, as opponents have argued that parents should be the ones making the decisions about their child’s social media use. Hochul said that in New York, the effort has been parent-backed.
“The parents are the ones helping lead the charge,” Hochul said. “They’re the ones who started this whole effort.”
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McDonald’s investing $100 million to lure customers back to the fast food giant after E. coli outbreak
McDonald’s is investing $100 million to bring customers back to stores after an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to onions on the fast-food giant’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers.
The investments include $65 million that will go directly to the hardest-hit franchises, the company said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that slivered onions on the Quarter Pounders were the likely source of the E. coli. Taylor Farms in California recalled onions potentially linked to the outbreak.
The E. coli outbreak has sickened 104 people in 14 states, federal health officials said in an update on Wednesday.
At least 34 people have been hospitalized, and four developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious condition that can cause kidney failure. An 88-year-old man who resided in Grand Junction, Colorado, died, as previously reported. The illnesses began at the end of September, and the most recent onset of illness occurred as of Oct. 21, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that “there does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants.”
However, the outbreak hurt the company’s sales.
Quarter Pounders were removed from menus in several states in the early days of the outbreak.
In a statement Wednesday obtained by CBS News, McDonald’s said it had found an “alternate supplier” for the approximately 900 restaurants that had temporarily stopped serving Quarter Pounders with slivered onions.
“Over the past week, these restaurants resumed the sale of Quarter Pounder burgers with slivered onions,” McDonald’s said.
CBS News reached out to McDonald’s on Saturday for a statement regarding the reported investment.
Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first U.S. case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo.
The person had traveled to eastern Africa and was treated in Northern California upon return, according to the California Department of Public Health. Symptoms are improving and the risk to the public is low.
Mpox is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. It is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals.
Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new form of mpox in Africa that was spread through close contact including through sex.
More than 3,100 confirmed cases have been reported just since late September, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of them have been in three African countries – Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since then, cases of travelers with the new mpox form have been reported in Germany, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and the United Kingdom.
Health officials earlier this month said the situation in Congo appears to be stabilizing. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated Congo needs at least 3 million mpox vaccines to stop the spread, and another 7 million vaccines for the rest of Africa.
The current outbreak is different from the 2022 global outbreak of mpox where gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases.
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China school knife attack kills at least 8, wounds 17, days after fatal car attack killed dozens
Eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect — a former student — has been arrested, police said.
The attack took place in the evening at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing in Jiangsu province, police in Yixing said in a statement, confirming the toll.
This was the second incident of fatal violence in China in a matter of days.
Earlier this week, a 62-year-old man killed 35 people and wounded more than 40 more when he rammed his small SUV into a crowd in the southern city of Zhuhai. The suspect was discovered in the car with a knife, with wounds to his neck thought to be self-harm injuries, according to the police.
Police said the suspect in the knife attack was a 21-year-old former student at the school who was meant to graduate this year, but failed his exams.
“He returned to the school to express his anger and commit these murders,” police said, adding that the suspect had confessed.
In Yixing, police said emergency services were fully mobilized to treat the wounded, and provide follow-up care for those affected by the attack.
Violent knife crime is not uncommon in China, where firearms are strictly controlled, but attacks with such a high death toll are relatively rare.
In recent months, there has been a spate of other attacks.
In October in Shanghai, a man killed three people and wounded 15 others in a knife attack at a supermarket.
And the month before, a Japanese schoolboy was fatally stabbed in the southern city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.
McDonald’s investing $100 million to lure customers back to the fast food giant after E. coli outbreak
U.S. health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler
China school knife attack kills at least 8, wounds 17, days after fatal car attack killed dozens
McDonald’s investing $100 million to lure customers back to the fast food giant after E. coli outbreak
U.S. health officials report 1st case of new form of mpox in a traveler