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Design It For Us, an organization led by young people that wants to “disrupt Big Tech’s harmful business models” went the opposite way. It opposed the earlier version of the bill, but advocated for the new policy that would require platforms to provide a way for young people to use them without certain features. Nikki Iyer, a youth leader at the organization and a UC Berkeley student, said the original ban sounded good in theory, but young people could still find ways around it. The new version of the bill, she said, “takes a much more nuanced approach and requires companies to actually change their behavior, and to change their design, rather than to keep doing what they’re doing."

Those who spoke at the bill signing event Wednesday included Saahir Vazirani, 18, an incoming first-year student at Princeton University. Vazirani is a member of Design it for Us, a coalition of young people advocating for a safer digital future. He recently graduated from St. Joseph High School in Metuchen. He said that the focus should be on “maximizing the benefits of the online world while protecting young people from its harms.”

Sherrill was joined by state Sen. Raj Mukherji, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin and Assemblymember Andrea Katz as well as Saahir Vazirani, an 18-year-old advocate at Design It For Us, a youth coalition focused on limiting the negative impact of big tech on the next generation.

Sherrill and Katz were also joined at the podium by Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin, state Senator Raj Mukherji and 18-year-old Middlesex County resident Saahir Vazirani, an incoming freshman at Princeton University. Vazirani is also a member of the youth-led coalition, Design It For Us, which aims to hold Big Tech accountable for its policies on young social media users.