NY Social Media Users Face New Age Authentication Requirement Starting in January

New York Public News Network | By Jimmy Vielkind

New Yorkers will need to prove they’re an adult before continuing to scroll through their social media feeds starting this January.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James announced detailed regulations of how the state plans to implement a law enacted in 2024 to protect children from social media addiction.

Apps can’t send notifications to minors between midnight and 6 a.m. Children will also be restricted from viewing feeds that are based on a user’s previous likes or engagements — which the Democratic governor said are addictive.

“It’s just about one simple premise: reclaiming childhood for our kids and let them have that carefree experience that most of us grew up with,” Hochul said.

Hochul initially signed the measure, called the SAFE Act, in June 2024. The new law tasked James’ office with developing regulations for age verification systems to enforce its provisions.

The regulations released Tuesday require large social media platforms to use third-party systems to document age. Government identification documents can be used, but aren’t required, according to the regulations.

It’s still relatively easy to determine whether an Internet user is over 18, said Andy Lulham, chief operating officer of Verifymy, which offers age-verification services. His company does so by scanning someone’s face or simply taking in their email address.

“It’s got nothing to do with the email account or your emails,” he explained. “But it can analyze where that email address was previously used. … So it could be compared on a database where there are mortgage providers or credit card companies or utility providers, and it can build an age profile or a minimum estimated age of the user.”

Trade groups representing social media companies lobbied against the measure. Representatives for Tech:NYC, whose members include Facebook-parent Meta, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The national group NetChoice — which has filed lawsuits against other state laws that restrict social media — also didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. Lawyers at that group previously questioned whether the New York law’s restrictions on curation amount to unconstitutional regulation of speech.

Several teenagers spoke in the governor’s office about navigating adolescence in the age of social media. They said they supported the restrictions in the new law, which could be overridden with the explicit consent of parents.

James Steyer, president of the advocacy group Common Sense Media, praised the release of the new rules.

“New York is setting a national standard for protecting kids online by focusing on curbing addictive social media feeds and limiting late-night notifications that disrupt children’s sleep and well-being,” he said. “There is more work to do to protect kids from the risks of AI and social media, but this law and its final rules are groundbreaking.”

Image: New social media rules signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, right, and crafted by state Attorney General Letitia James, left, go into effect in January. (Don Pollard/Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office)