Smullen: Assembly Bills A.8148-A and A.8149-A Have Passed Just in Time

A Statement from Assemblyman Robert Smullen (R,C-Mohawk Valley and the Adirondacks) in response to the end of 2024-25 Legislative Session.

I was proud to see two children’s online safety bills I cosponsored, A.8148-A and A.8149-A, passed this year. These are common-sense, non-partisan bills, designed to help protect our children from the addictive nature of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and more. A.8148-A will help protect the mental health of children from addictive feeds used by social media platforms, and A.8149-A will help protect the privacy of children and young adults by restricting digital services from collecting or using the personal data of users they know are under the age of 18.

“Establishing these no-nonsense policies that all New Yorkers can get behind is simple and easy. We should introduce and push to adopt more proposals like this that give parents control over our children’s exposure to addictive social media platforms. This will go a long way to address the mental health crisis for our children while improving public safety for all New Yorkers.”