State Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul chose UFT headquarters to unveil two new pieces of legislation designed to safeguard children from the predatory practices of social media companies.

“Social media platforms manipulate the content children see online to keep them on the platforms as long as possible,” James said. “They know that the more time children spend online, the more ads they will see and the more data that can be collected to sell to advertisers.”

The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act would permit youth under the age of 18 and their parents to opt out of receiving posts on TikTok, Instagram and other social media sites from accounts the children don’t follow. Child advocates say the algorithms are built to keep users online for as long as possible and expose young people to harmful or inappropriate content. Children would instead get a chronological feed of content from users they already follow.

“Do you understand how an algorithm works?” Hochul asked. “It follows you. It preys on you.”

The second bill, the New York Child Data Protection Act, would restrict social media platforms from collecting, sharing and selling data on child users for the purposes of advertising.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew, who presided at the packed press conference on Oct. 11, said predatory algorithms are targeting and harming children, and the technology industry has refused to stop the practice.

“It’s going to be a fight, but it’s one we’re going to get done because the children of New York deserve protection,” he said.

NYSUT launched a petition at mac.nysut.org/online-safety to build support for the legislation, which will be debated in the legislative session that opens in January.