OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The hosts of “Fox & Friends” stunned their audience and themselves by agreeing with Democratic governors.
The topic was New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signing legislation that addresses social media addiction for kids and California Gov. Gavin Newsom banning phones in schools.
“Let’s talk about discipline. It’s time to bring some discipline into the classroom, maybe for our kids. Governor [Gavin Newsom] out in California, I agree with you. Bans phones from the classroom. And now, Governor Hochul, I agree with you when it comes to social media algorithm websites. Excuse me; social media sites like Instagram and TikTok which is technically going to be banned shortly anyway. It’s time to keep them away from kids in New York,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said.
“You know why she’s doing that? Did you realize — I saw this in the New York Post today — her popularity is currently lower than [President] Joe Biden’s in New York state, which is awfully hard to do. So what’s she doing? She’s coming out, and she’s saying, ‘I’m going to protect your kids.’ She knows that this is going to face a stiff headwind in the courts,” co-host Steve Doocy said, but co-host Ainsley Earhardt said what might have been the most shocking part of the segment.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this. She’s now more popular with me. I mean, I don’t really like her policies, but I like this one,” she said.
“I don’t know that this does that much, really,” Doocy said.
“If it helps my daughter, eventually, when she gets a phone, I’m all for it,” Earnhardt said.
The New York governor signed legislation known as the “SAFE for Kids Act” which targets apps like TikTok and Instagram that use their algorithms to keep eyes one the platform as they generate profits.
“We will save lives with this, my friends,” she said to the audience at the United Federation of Teachers union headquarters in Manhattan when she signed the legislation, The New York Post reported.
“Our kids will not be commoditized,” she said. “We will not let them make money off our kids, our babies, anymore. That is not happening here, so here we are, the first in the nation.”
“The next frontier is the phones,” the governor said to reporters, indicating she wants to ban phones in schools.
“This is something that individual school districts right now can adopt,” she said. “There is no prohibition on them, but to those who need the courage to be able to say that the governor made me do it, I’m happy to take that on, but we need some time to develop and get this done properly.”
The Post said that the legislation would “prevent social media platforms from feeding users under the age of 18 content using algorithms that are tailored to keep them scrolling. Give parents the ability to pause notifications on their kids’ social media accounts between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. Bar social media companies from selling data generated by users under the age of 18.”
The legislation is likely to be contested in court by tech companies.
“Lawmakers clearly have good intentions with these bills, but some significant unresolved issues — including how age verification will work, which websites will be impacted, and whether algorithms used to filter out harmful content will be banned — could prevent them from being fulfilled,” President and CEO of Tech: NYC, Julie Samuels, said.
“This new law is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech and information access. It requires websites to block access unless visitors go through intrusive age and identity verification, directly infringing on the rights of both websites and internet users,” NetChoice vice president Carl Szabo said.
