Hochul Will Back New Safeguards to Protect Children Online

In her State of the State address, Gov. Kathy Hochul will propose that the default setting for online platforms should ban viewing or messaging minors.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday said she would back new privacy standards for young New Yorkers online, including safeguards that would automatically bar strangers from viewing, tagging or messaging minors on gaming and social media platforms.

The proposed restrictions, which would be among the most stringent in the nation, come after numerous reports of children facing enticement and exploitation from adults on platforms like Roblox and Discord. The measures will be a part of Ms. Hochul’s State of the State address on Jan. 13, during which she will unveil her agenda for the year.

The proposed legislation would require parental approval to override the limits on strangers interacting with minors. It would also impose new restrictions on minors connecting with artificial intelligence chatbots after tragedies like the suicide of a Florida teenager who fell in love with a chatbot.

“I will not rest until I know our students are safe, healthy and happy,” said Ms. Hochul, who frequently highlights the fact that she is the first governor of New York who is also a mother. She spoke at an event held at her alma mater, Hamburg High School near Buffalo.

“We still have lurking in the shadows of the internet these predators, these scammers, these criminals — and they’re now using chat features on our kids’ favorite games,” she said, adding, “We have to act, and we have to demand better safeguards.”

Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, is aiming to build on her record of protecting children online as she runs for re-election in November. During her tenure, she has passed nation-leading legislation to regulate social media companies’ use of algorithms on children’s feeds, advanced A.I. restrictions and banned the use of cellphones in schools.

The legislation she is backing now would extend the requirement that social media platforms verify users’ ages to online gaming platforms and require that children under the age of 13 receive parental approval before they can accept friend requests.

It would also create new protections around financial transactions. To keep children from “gambling their parents’ money on virtual junk,” as Ms. Hochul put it, she has proposed monthly spending caps for minors on platforms.

She is also pushing for new restrictions on the kind of financial gifts that minors can receive on platforms like Roblox, where abusers have been able to groom and exploit children after luring them with online currency. The company, which has roughly 50 million daily active users under the age of 14, has been the subject of dozens of lawsuits from families, nearly 80 of which were consolidated into one San Francisco case in December of last year.

Those plaintiffs say that child predators use platforms like Roblox to identify and connect with young people, ultimately coercing them into sharing sexually explicit content. Many lawsuits also name other apps including Discord and Snapchat, where they say the conversations continue.

Eric Porterfield, a representative for Roblox, said that the company would soon require users in the United States to go through what it described as facial age checks and restrict them from chatting with users who appear much older or younger than themselves. Similar checks are already in place in several other countries, including Australia.

Representatives for Meta, Discord, and Snap did not respond to requests for comment.

Attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky, Florida and Louisiana have also filed lawsuits against gaming platforms, which they say have not taken sufficient action to protect minors.

In New York, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, a Democrat who has sponsored legislation that partly inspired Ms. Hochul’s proposal, said that while some companies had protections in place, they were inconsistent.

“A conversation on Roblox might transition to Facebook Messenger, might transition to Discord, or whatever else,” he said. “We should have the same consistent standard across the board.”

On top of the regulatory framework, the package would also include additional funding to expand a program that trains teenagers to recognize mental and substance abuse crises.

Ms. Hochul is hoping to make this emotional first-aid training available to all 10th graders across the state. “A friend can help another friend in a powerful, profound way,” she said.

There is broad support across partisan lines for protecting children from digital harms. Previous online safety measures like the Safe for Kids Act passed the State Legislature nearly unanimously, and even President Trump’s executive order on A.I., which was seen by many as deferential to industry, mentioned the importance of protecting children.

Even so, Mr. Gounardes, who sponsored both the Safe for Kids Act and the RAISE Act, both of which faced significant objections from industry, said he was prepared for a fight.

“These companies do not like being told what to do,” he said.

Instead, they like to do what is best for them, he added, “by trying to convince us that it’s the best thing for us.”

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