NJ lawmaker targets harmful social media influences on youth

🍩 Is social media having an impact on child eating disorders?

🍩 One NJ lawmaker aims to tackle this issue with a new bill?

🍩 Social media sites would have to audit themselves annually

Social media and the effect it can have on young people, especially adolescent girls regarding their looks and bodies, can lead to low self-esteem, disordered eating behaviors, body shaming and social comparison.

That is why a New Jersey lawmaker sponsored a bill to address this.

“When I was a teenager, we had Teen Beat, we had Vogue, we could look at pictures of models in those magazines, put them down, and go move on with our day. That had an impact on us as it was,” Assemblywoman Andrea Katz, D-Atlantic, said.

But adolescents and teenagers see this every single day on their social media. The social media content is also giving them advice and ideas on how to continue with a disordered eating lifestyle.

“We need to protect our adolescents and I think that social media companies can be a great partner in doing just that,” Katz said.

The Bill

Katz’s bill, which also lists Assemblymen Herb Conaway Jr., D-Burlington, and Benjie Wimberly, D-Passaic as primary sponsors, would help prevent adolescents and kids from seeing content that’s going to encourage disordered eating.

Under her bill, social media companies would be prohibited from using a design, algorithm, or feature that the platform knows could cause young people to develop eating disorders.

Social media companies would have to audit themselves annually, take a look at the way algorithms are working and what’s popping up (because they constantly change), and take off the content that is triggering to adolescents who are dealing with an eating disorder.

If the audit finds that any algorithm or practice has the potential to cause or contribute to the development of child eating disorders, Katz said they will have to pull it off their website.

“I’ve worked in social media. I know it changes. It evolves. So, what we know right now might be popping up, what words, what phrases, what types of different videos are going to be triggering, but as we move forward we don’t know what’s going to be popping up, we don’t know how these algorithms are going to evolve, so they need to police themselves every year to go through this process,” Katz said.

According to the bill, a social media company has 30 days of the audit’s completion to correct the practice. If not, they may be required to pay a fine of up to $250,000 per violation.

Katz, who used to be a stay-at-home mom, said she speaks with young children and adolescents often who say they struggle with their mental health related to social media and its effect on their appearances.

“I was a teenage girl myself. I have two teenage daughters so I know what they’re seeing in their social media content, and I know how that affects them. I think we all owe it to our kids to make sure that what they’re seeing is safe and helpful to them,” Katz said.

Second Piece of Legislation

Katz has also sponsored a second piece of legislation that goes hand-in-hand with this bill.

This legislation would create an office within the New Jersey Department of Health to expand awareness around disordered eating and look for grants around disordered eating.

“When I introduced these bills, I had the privilege of working with Miss New Jersey Elizabeth Mendel who has struggled with disordered eating in her own life. This was her platform for the Miss America pageant,” Katz said.

What she has done to raise awareness around this issue has been so important, and Katz hopes that this newly-formed office will be able to look for grants to help young people and raise awareness so adolescents in New Jersey know they can talk about this.

They can ask parents, teachers, and coaches for help if they are struggling, she added.

The Final Message

Katz said it’s so important to increase awareness around a very serious issue and increase the ability for kids to come to those they trust, ask for help, and ask for advice.

“I know how I feel when I look at social media. I have to be very self-aware that what I’m seeing is not reality. Our kids are not there yet. They haven’t learned that yet. They’re working through that, and we just have to make sure that they’re safe as they’re going through their adolescence,” Katz said.

At last check, Katz’s bill cleared the State Assembly committee in December 2024.

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