NY Governor Kathy Hochul hosted a roundtable with students from Williamsville East High School in Erie County to discuss the youth mental health crisis and the harmful impacts of excessive and addictive social media use. She emphasized the need for legislation to address online safety and regulate social media companies’ practices that negatively affect young people’s mental health.[1][2][3][4][5]
Key Points
- Hochul heard directly from students about the positive and negative effects of social media, seeking their recommendations to help younger users.[1]
- She aims to pass bills in the final weeks of the legislative session to complement efforts in tackling the rise in youth mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic’s isolation.[1]
- Hochul criticized social media companies for bombarding students with addictive algorithms and profiting off their personal data, vowing to control these harmful practices through legislation.[1][2]
- The Governor underscored her commitment to enacting nation-leading laws that protect children’s online safety and curb the detrimental impacts of unhealthy social media usage on youth mental health.[1][2][5]
By engaging with students firsthand, Hochul aims to craft effective policies targeting predatory social media tactics that contribute to the youth mental health crisis, positioning New York as a leader in safeguarding young people’s wellbeing in the digital age.[1][2][5]
Criticism: Once again, listening to the representative of the Democratic Party—the governor—the majority rightly suspect that the beautiful words about “care for youth” and the “mental health of social network users” are just another attack on Americans’ rights to use the Internet freely to express their demands to local, state, and federal authorities. As usual, these decisions will result in bureaucrats deciding what the “truth” is, how best to remove the “wrong truth” from the public eye, and, of course, influencing election results—including the “author” of this “struggle” against freedom of speech on social networks.
Citations:
[1] https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/video-audio-photos-rush-transcript-governor-hochul-meets-high-school-students-discuss-mental
[2] https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/health/mental-health/hochul-youth-mental-health/71-ac6b8b79-9cb9-4ea7-8a84-f0a32f834a8d
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnvEEjHYYNg
[4] https://soundcloud.com/govkathyhochul/governor-hochul-speaks-with-the-media-following-a-youth-mental-health-roundtable
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8n0Iv37UIk