NEW YORK—Today, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, State Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Nily Rozic proposed new legislation mandating that social media services collect massive amounts of data on internet users under the age of 18.
Similar laws were passed in California and Arkansas, and NetChoice has successfully obtained injunctions on each law due to serious constitutional concerns.
“It’s unfortunate for New Yorkers that the state is denying parents their right to raise their children as they deem appropriate, all while ignoring the simple steps of working with schools and community leaders to educate students and adults how to use social media in a safe and responsible manner,” said Carl Szabo, NetChoice Vice President and General Counsel. “Instead of adopting the successful approach of Virginia and Florida to educate students, New York is following the same unconstitutional approach as California and Arkansas.”
Szabo continued: “NetChoice implores New York lawmakers to abandon this unconstitutional, wasteful effort and consider a few constitutional alternatives to keep all Americans and our children safe online.”
Instead of risking New Yorkers’ privacy and security and violating the Constitution, NetChoice suggests three proposals to state policymakers that will help keep kids, teens and adults online safe:
- Giving law enforcement more resources to prosecute CSAM violations reported by online services, like the federal Invest in Child Safety Act proposes;
- Requiring digital safety and security education in the classroom, following the example of Florida and Virginia; and
- Helping educate parents through various mechanisms like public service campaigns on the many digital tools that already exist and are available to them right now to help protect their children online.
You can find more information about our cases against California and Arkansas over similar proposals, NetChoice v. Bonta and NetChoice v. Griffin, here.
Please contact Krista Chavez at press@netchoice.org with inquiries.