On the Issues

As the father of two young kids, Andrew’s top priority is keeping our children safe. This year, he stood up to Big Tech and successfully passed two landmark laws to protect children and teens from addictive algorithms and exploitative data collection on social media:

• The New York Child Data Protection Act stops sites from collecting and selling our children's data.

• The SAFE for Kids Act protects children and teens from addictive algorithms on social media.
  

The research is clear: social media is fueling the youth mental health crisis. Teens who use social media over three hours each day face twice the risk of depression and anxiety. One study found that, amongst young girls, the correlation between mental health struggles and social media use was stronger than the links to binge drinking, sexual assault, or hard drug use.

Social media companies are profiting off this crisis: In 2022, social media platforms like Instagram and Tiktok made nearly $11 billion in ad revenue just from users under 18. 

That’s why Andrew led a bipartisan campaign to pass first-in-the-nation protections, defeating a million-dollar lobbying effort by Big Tech in the process. The SAFE for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act get at the heart of the youth mental health crisis by regulating two of social media's most harmful tools: addictive algorithms and predatory data collection.

Andrew plans to continue fighting for a better, safer internet, including by:

• Banning smartphones in schools.

• Updating our anti-harassment laws for the age of social media by enabling victims of digital harassment to more easily obtain a restraining order.