Gov. Kathy Hochul called for increasing social media and artificial intelligence protections for children and investing in peer-to-peer mental health training for teens. Hochul announced her proposals at Hamburg High School in western New York, stating, “I will not rest until I know our students are safe, healthy and happy, because we still have lurking in the shadows of the internet, these predators, these criminals.”
The proposed legislation would require social media platforms to automatically default to the highest privacy settings for anyone under the age of 18. This would include turning off open chat functions to prevent strangers from messaging minors and disabling location sharing. It also would limit youth interactions with artificial intelligence companions, known as companion bots, that simulate a human relationship with a user. The proposals include age verification requirements for online games and allowing parents to set limits on children’s financial transactions.
Mental Health Training and Safeguards
Hochul called for expanding a pilot program that provides mental health training for sophomores in high school, allowing them to help their friends, identify signs of distress and encourage them to reach out to adults. “Today we are continuing to break new ground to give our kids the tools and safeguards they need to contend with the unprecedented mental health challenges and real world dangers that can sometimes be a byproduct of navigating today’s digital world,” she said in a statement.
The proposals are part of the Democrat’s legislative agenda for 2026. Hochul and lawmakers previously passed several laws restricting social media platforms and artificial intelligence. They include banning social media platforms from offering addictive, algorithm-based feeds to promote content to those under the age of 18 without parental consent; restricting sites from collecting, using and sharing minors’ personal data; and requiring social media platforms to display labels warning of the potential for negative mental health impacts for youth users.
The latest proposals require platforms to have the highest privacy settings as a default for children, so strangers can’t view their profiles, tag or message. Children under 13 would need parental approval for new connections. Julie Scelfo, executive director of Mothers Against Media Addiction, said, “These common-sense proposals by Gov. Hochul will better safeguard New York’s youth from the harms of addictive and manipulative tech, and help put an end to the ongoing national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.”
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/hochul-social-media-izemikah