According to engadget, the State of New York has passed and Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a bill on Friday that will force social media platforms to display warning labels. These labels, explicitly compared to those on cigarette packs, will caution users about potential harm to young people’s mental health. The law specifically targets platforms that use features like infinite scrolling, auto-play videos, public like counts, or algorithmic feeds. The warning must appear when a user first interacts with these “predatory” features and then periodically after that. The law applies to any platform accessed from within New York, regardless of where the company is based. This follows two other bills Hochul signed last year aimed at protecting kids online.
The Big Picture Trend
Here’s the thing: New York isn’t acting in a vacuum. This is part of a massive, accelerating wave of regulatory action aimed at social media giants. The U.S. Surgeon General said last year these platforms should have warning labels, pointing to clear links with increased anxiety and depression in kids. Florida just passed a law banning social media for kids under 14. And look at Europe—the UK is about to follow France, which became the first nation to ban it outright for children this year.
So the trajectory is crystal clear. Governments have moved past the “expressing concern” phase and are now in the “passing laws” phase. The playbook is literally being borrowed from the tobacco industry. Start with warnings, then maybe age restrictions, then who knows? It feels like we’re watching the opening act of a much longer, messier legal and cultural battle.
Will This Actually Work?
But let’s be real for a second. Does anyone think a pop-up warning is going to stop a teenager from scrolling through TikTok? I’m deeply skeptical. We all click past terms of service agreements without reading them. How is this different? It seems like a well-intentioned but probably superficial fix to a profoundly complex problem.
The law is fascinating because it doesn’t ban the features outright—it just wants them labeled as potentially harmful. It’s an admission that the design itself is the problem. Infinite scroll and algorithmic feeds aren’t bugs; they’re the core product features that drive engagement (and ad revenue). So we’re basically asking companies to put a warning label on their own most effective tools. How enthusiastically do you think they’ll comply?
And what does “accessed from New York” even mean for global apps? It probably means every user in the U.S. will start seeing these warnings, because segregating traffic by state is a technical and legal nightmare. So New York’s law might effectively become a national standard by default.
What Comes Next
Now, the immediate next step is seeing how platforms like Meta, Snap, and TikTok respond. Their comments to Engadget were pending, but you can bet the industry lobbying groups are already drafting lawsuits. They’ll argue this violates the First Amendment or that it’s preempted by federal law. This law is almost certainly headed for the courts.
Basically, New York has lit a fuse. Other states will watch closely and likely follow with their own, possibly more restrictive, versions. It creates a patchwork of regulations that tech companies hate. That pressure, in turn, might actually force Congress to finally consider a national, federal standard for online safety. Or it might just create years of legal chaos. Either way, the era of completely hands-off regulation for social media is over. The warnings are literally coming from inside the app.
