It was more than two years ago that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law the SAFE for Kids Act to restrict what kids can see on social media.
Only now is it set to take effect.
“Social media companies, you’re now on notice,” Hochul said Tuesday.
Hochul was joined at an announcement by state Attorney General Letitia James, whose office crafted detailed regulations. The rules will apply to the largest social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, X and YouTube.
Kids under 18 years old will no longer see an addictive algorithmic feed and will no longer receive notifications from midnight to 6 a.m., unless they get parental consent.
“What does it mean for them? That means that they can choose to follow their friends, their family, the Taylor Swift fan page, whatever it is,” said Brooklyn state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, a sponsor of the law. “They get to see the content they want, not the content that the algorithm wants to push on them in the desire to keep them scrolling longer and longer and longer.”
“What changes is the default,” James said. “Platforms cannot automatically place minors into feeds engineered to maximize engagement.”
To verify whether users are 18, platforms can rely on government-issued IDs but must provide at least one other method.
That could mean requesting an uploaded image or video, or using an email address or phone number, cross-checked against other data that proves a user’s age. Any identifying information must be deleted immediately, and verification methods must be shown to meet accuracy benchmarks.
“This is not a question of privacy,” James said. “This is a question about content. This is not about the First Amendment. Again, this is about protecting children.”
Hochul said: “Social media companies tell me, ‘We have no way of knowing whether someone’s under 18 or not.’ I said, ‘You’re smart people. Use [artificial intelligence] to figure it out. Ask how you do it.’ And you’re not supposed to allow underage gaming anyhow — sports betting — so you must have some metric. So don’t tell me you can’t do it. Figure it out.”
Reaction from the industry was muted Tuesday. The tech industry coalition Tech:NYC released a statement saying: “We support the goal of protecting young New Yorkers online, but it is essential that key provisions of this law, including age verification requirements, actually work in practice and can achieve this goal without creating unintended consequences for New York families, consumers, and impacted companies.”
“Kids are looking to us as the adults, to save them from themselves,” Hochul said. “And we’re responding, ‘Yes, we will.’”
The final regulations will be officially published this week. Social media companies will then have six months to get into compliance before the law takes full effect next January.
