TRANSCRIPT: MAYOR ADAMS CALLS IN FOR LIVE INTERVIEW WITH 1010 WINS

February 14, 2024

Lori Madden: We've been telling you this afternoon on 1010 WINS that New York City is taking TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube to court. Mayor Adams says they must be held accountable for fueling the youth mental health crisis. And right now, the mayor is joining us live on 1010 WINS, 92.3 FM. Mr. Mayor, why a lawsuit against social media today?

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. This is an initiative that I was part of even back in my days of borough president. And from a series of conversations, it is clear that we need a combination of approaches. We need our legislative leaders to do laws, and that is what Senator Gounardes mentioned.

But we also need to get into a courtroom and really mandate changes in our social media industries and platforms to stop using algorithms and other methods to draw our children into the dark hole of depression, violence and other actions.

Madden: Now, algorithms, nothing new, this has been going on for years. Is it not up to the parents to take some responsibility for their kids being on social media? Is it all on the social media companies?

Mayor Adams: Well, I think anyone that is raising a child nowadays will tell you the complexities of it. And what's unique about social media is that our children are able to go into the privacy of their bedrooms, on the trains, on the bus stations, in classrooms. You know, parents can't be everywhere, but social media and the harmful effects of it is everywhere.

We see duplication of riding on top of the trains, subway surfing. We see violence, retaliatory violence being played out on social media, young girls being depressed because of their body shapes. And that is everywhere. And so the parents are having a challenging time of raising children when they're inundated with these other outside forces that social media is using.

Madden: Mr. Mayor, you and the agencies in the city are all big users of social media. A lot of New Yorkers rely on them. Is this going to change your behavior at all on social media and various agencies?

Mayor Adams: Well, you know, that's a great question, because I have to catch myself. There were times where I would log on to either Instagram or TikTok and I would find myself spending hours of just going through these various videos that came up. And I think even adults are having to modify their behavior.

But at a young age — particularly before the age of 14 — a child’s brain is not developed at that level of what an adult brain is developed, and we have challenges to do so. But we're already modifying our behavior around the use of TikTok and others, and I think all of us who are going to have to take a reexamination of how this new form of communication called social media is in our lives.

Madden: Well, you bring up TikTok, and TikTok did give a statement to 1010 WINS this afternoon, and let me read it to you, and I want you to react to it. TikTok has industry‑leading safeguards to support teens' well‑being, including age‑restricted features, parental controls, and automatic 60‑minute time limit for users under 18 and more. We regularly partner with experts to understand emerging best practices. Your response to that?

Mayor Adams: Look, we met with TikTok, Meta and Instagram and others and sat down and shared this with them. We know that social media is going to be here, and we know that they are partners in the city. We've done great things with Google and others. They are partners in the city.

But when it comes down to the area of focus on our children and our mental health, the mental health experts are saying this is a very serious crisis that we are facing. Eric Adams the mayor is not making a determination, mental health professionals across the country are stating we have to get this under control.

It is impacting our children from everything from suicidal ideation, to the violence that we're seeing being proliferated, to the actions of our young people that is extremely dangerous to them. And we need to get it under control, and it's up to us to make it happen.

Madden: Okay. Thank you very much.

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