New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the state’s Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday the approval of final rules that will force social media companies to implement new measures to protect children and teenagers from algorithms designed to generate addictive use, in compliance with the SAFE for Kids Act (Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act).
The new rules will go into effect on January 25, 2027 and will require platforms to verify the age of users who indicate they are over 17 years old. To do this, they may use methods such as validation of an official government-issued identification, verification through images or videos, or cross-confirmation of emails and phone numbers.
Attorney General James assured that New York’s efforts to protect minors online are ahead of federal proposals on the responsible use of social networks.
“The SAFE for Kids Act is leading the country in protecting our children online and preventing the devastating effects of unchecked social media,” James said. “These rules establish age verification standards and parental controls to ensure that technology companies meet their responsibility to keep minors safe on their platforms.”
According to state officials, the final rules will allow exceptions with parental consent so that underage users can access certain restricted features.
For years, platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok have come under fire for the potential negative effects they can have on users and society in general. In 2018, then-Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg first appeared before Congress to answer questions about disinformation and data security at Facebook.
Since then, the public conversation has changed, especially around the impact of social media on children and adolescents. Cases of online predators contacting minors through these platforms have been accompanied by studies and statistics that warn that algorithms can not only encourage addictive usage patterns, but also affect the mental health of young people.
By following the platforms’ automatic content recommendations, minors can end up trapped in a cycle that exposes them to violent videos, extremist material, or influencer posts that promote eating disorders and self-harm behaviors.
Initiatives such as the Lost Screen Memorial, which documents deaths related to the impact of social media and online harassment, have intensified the debate about these risks.
State leaders maintain that the new measures will create stricter limits to protect New York children and teens from harmful, addictive and potentially dangerous content.
“When I took office, our children were in the midst of a mental health crisis, and as New York’s first mother governor I felt a moral obligation to act,” Hochul said in a statement. “Today we are sending a clear message: our children’s mental health is not for sale.”
However, privacy and free speech advocates have questioned the SAFE for Kids Act, arguing that the restrictions could limit access to protected content and not meaningfully resolve the problems it seeks to address. The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) expressed its objections after reviewing the legislation.
«In short, the SAFE Act does not prevent minors from searching for harmful content on their own, downloading and consuming everything they find, sharing it with their friends or communicating directly with each other; it simply prevents platforms from recommending more content to them,” the NYCLU said in a legislative memorandum.
As New York moves forward with the implementation of one of the country’s strictest measures to limit addictive content aimed at young users, the debate continues over how to balance the protection of minors, privacy and freedom of expression.
The real impact of these regulations—and whether they will improve the digital experience of children and adolescents—will depend on their application and the legal challenges they may face.
