Massachusetts

Legislation Updates

After being reported favorably by the Joint Committee on Public Health in early February 2024, S.1465/H.2215 was referred to the Committee on Healthcare Financing and awaits a decision from the Committee Members. We thank you for your continued support on protecting the health of Massachusetts youth, and urge you to keep spreading awareness about these issues and reaching out to your representatives to get the bill on their radar.

Thank you Massachusetts Representative Khan and Senator Rush for being champions of bills to protect young people from dangerous weight loss and muscle-building supplements.

Introduced by Massachusetts Representative Kay Khan and Senator Michael Rush in the 2023-2024 Massachusetts legislative session, An Act protecting children from harmful diet pills and muscle-building supplements (H.2215/S.1465), would protect kids from dangerously underregulated over-the-counter diet pills and muscle-building supplements by restricting the sale to adults 18 years or older.

Helpful materials:

Want to get involved with the Out of Kids’ Hands Campaign in Massachusetts? Contact us at STRIPED@hsph.harvard.edu

STRIPED News

Today marks a win for the Out of Kids’ Hands Campaign! Thanks to our youth advocates, S.5863/A.5610D took effect in NY state on April 22, 2024, restricting sales of weight-loss and muscle-building supplements to minors. A judge denied an injunction motion by the supplement industry. This much-needed change protects children’s health and well-being. Find Senator Mayer’s full press release here.

Check out STRIPED’s new roadmap, which provides model legislation, guides, and fact sheets to help advocates create safer online spaces for youth through algorithm risk audits and social media transparency.

New STRIPED research highlights the significant health and economic toll of body dissatisfaction, weight discrimination, and skin-shade discrimination in America. Learn more in our report, The Real Cost of Beauty Ideals.

STRIPED is now accepting applications for travel scholarships for the next Eating Disorders Coalition Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, May 8, 2024. To apply, visit our Travel Scholarship webpage. Applications are due Tuesday, April 2, 2024.

Hear key insights on eating disorder prevention from STRIPED Director Bryn Austin in an important new episode of the “Food, We Need to Talk” podcast. Don’t miss this revealing conversation on critical strategies for at-risk youth during National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

NPR’s Morning Edition featured a collaboration with colleagues at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health emphasizing the need for universities to work with mental health influencers in order to create impactful social media content promoting evidence-based research.

New STRIPED research in the American Journal of Law and Medicine: Algorithms, Addiction, and Adolescent Mental Health: An Interdisciplinary Study to Inform State-level Policy Action to Protect Youth from the Dangers of Social Media.