Today, the USA Today Network published an op-ed by Governor Kathy Hochul about her commitment as New York’s first Mom Governor to fighting for our kids, including her nation-leading cell phone ban to her work cracking down on addictive social media algorithms and tackling AI threats head on. Text of the op-ed can be viewed online and is available below:
With the school year quickly coming to an end, many parents will soon exchange the daily battle of getting their kids out the door to school with prying their attention away from phones.
Smartphones and social media have a stranglehold on our children. They're spending hours each day on their phones, scrolling instead of socializing, immersed in someone else’s reel instead of living their own lives. And it’s taking a toll. Our kids are lonelier, more anxious and increasingly disconnected.
We’re in the middle of a youth mental health crisis. The research shows it, but I don’t need another scientific report — I’ve heard directly from parents, teachers and teenagers all across this state about the issue. And everywhere I go, I hear the same thing: addictive technology is hurting our kids.
As New York’s first Mom Governor, this is personal to me. I’ve raised teenagers. I know the helplessness a parent feels when their child is suffering. It’s the worst feeling in the world. So I knew we had to do something about it.
I'm not one for half measures. I’m not going to sit back and talk about the problem. I’m going to take action.
Last year, I took the bold, decisive step to restrict the addictive algorithms that have monopolized our kids’ social media feeds. It wasn’t about telling our teenagers they can’t use social media. It was about saying to social media companies, you cannot profit off of our kids’ wellbeing.
But social media isn’t the only threat. In this rapidly advancing, technology-driven world, unchecked AI-enabled technology is creating new risks, from AI chatbots that simulate personal relationships to deepfake apps that produce explicit images of minors.
We saw the tragic consequences of inaction last year when a 14-year-old boy died by suicide after developing an unhealthy relationship with an AI Companion. And we’ve also seen a disturbing rise in AI-enabled “undressing” applications and websites that are being used to create fake nude images of real kids, often targeting teenage girls – in the first half of 2024 alone, 16 of such websites were visited over 200 million times.
My state budget tackles these digital threats head on. It establishes first-in-the-nation safeguards for AI companions — requiring AI companion operators in New York to implement a safety protocol if a user talks about self harm, like referring users to a crisis hotline. And I am updating our laws to treat AI-generated child sexual abuse material as what it is: child pornography.
But social media and AI-generated websites are only a couple pieces of the puzzle. What is the vehicle that allows kids to have their lives dominated by these platforms? It's not just what’s on the screen, it’s the fact the screen is always there. Buzzing in our kids’ pockets, lighting up on their desks, following them from homeroom to the cafeteria.
This has lasting consequences: Classrooms where kids sit in silence. Hallways without chatter. Lunch tables full of students texting each other instead of talking face to face. When teens spend a quarter of the school day on their phones, they miss out on the essential social development that shapes them into capable, confident adults.
And the pressure to stay online is relentless. One student told me, “you have to save us from ourselves. We can’t put these phones down because we’ll be out of the loop. We’ll miss out on something.”
That’s why, starting this fall, I’m taking another bold step to give our children their childhood’s back and banning cell phones in the classroom bell-to-bell. Here's why: our young people succeed when they’re learning and growing, not clicking and scrolling.
Think about it — we don’t teach kids to make friends by showing them 100 online videos about friendship. We take them to the playground. We don’t show them how to toss a baseball on YouTube. We play catch with them.
We need to get our kids back into real life.
So let’s get back to that throwback time, when we weren’t all sitting indoors, held captive to our phones. That’s the spirit behind my “Get Offline, Get Outside” initiative.
I’m investing in building and renovating community centers, playgrounds, and swimming pools to give our kids places to enjoy recreation and the outdoors. I’m also dramatically expanding youth programming, helping tens of thousands more kids join the local soccer team or participate in a community theater program. And our Summer Youth Employment Program will help tens of thousands of young people find good summer jobs at places like parks, summer camps, cultural centers, and community-based organizations.
I’ll never stop fighting for our children’s futures. Because your family is my fight. I said that on day one, and I mean it just as much today.
Summer is here. Let’s get offline and get outside.