Attorney General James and Governor Hochul Release Final SAFE for Kids Act Rules to Protect Children Online

July 28, 2026

NEW YORK - New York Attorney General Letitia James today released final rules on how social media companies must restrict addictive features on their platforms to comply with the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and protect children's mental health. The SAFE for Kids Act, championed by Attorney General James, sponsored by Senator Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Nily Rozic, and signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul, requires social media companies to restrict algorithmically personalized feeds and nighttime notifications for users under the age of 18 unless they obtain parental consent. Algorithmic feeds and nighttime notifications are tied to depression, anxiety, eating and sleep disorders, and other mental health issues among children and teenagers. The rules released today establish criteria to determine which companies must comply with the law and outline standards to determine users' age and obtain parental consent.

"The SAFE for Kids Act leads the nation in keeping our children safe online and protecting youth from the devastating effects of unchecked social media," said Attorney General James. "These rules set standards for age verification and parental control to ensure tech companies are doing their part to keep kids safe on their platforms. Young people are particularly vulnerable to addictive social media features, and my office is committed to protecting all New Yorkers from potentially harmful technologies and companies that try to take advantage of them."

"When I came into office, our children were in the throes of a full-blown mental health crisis, and as New York's first mom Governor, I felt a moral imperative to act," said Governor Hochul. "Today, we're sending a clear message: our kids' mental health isn't for sale. We promised action and the SAFE For Kids Act is delivering by ensuring that any platform that targets our children with addictive feeds will face legal consequences. Instead of clicking and scrolling, our kids will be learning and growing."

"I passed this law for a simple reason: kids' safety should come before Big Tech's profits," said State Senator Andrew Gounardes. "The SAFE for Kids Act protects children from addictive algorithms that force-feed them content they don't want and put their mental health at risk. These new regulations bring the law to life by keeping young people safe while protecting New Yorkers' online privacy and holding social media corporations accountable. Thanks to Attorney General James for her crucial work to get this done. Together, we're building a safer, better internet for all New Yorkers."

"As a mother and legislator, keeping our kids safe is one of my highest priorities," said Assemblymember Nily Rozic. "The final SAFE for Kids rules are a major step toward holding social media platforms accountable and protecting children from harmful and addictive features. I'm grateful to Governor Hochul and Attorney General James for their leadership and for ensuring that New York continues to lead the way in putting families first."

Algorithmically personalized feeds, or addictive feeds, recommend or personalize content for users in an endless stream based on data that the platform gathers about the user. They are designed to encourage a user to continue to use and return to a platform. Content displayed in addictive feeds is often from accounts that a user does not follow and is often displayed out of chronological order.

Addictive feeds are known to drive unhealthy levels of social media use in minors that can affect their mental health. Research shows that children as young as 10 to 14 years old experience addictive use of social media, and the more time children spend on social media, the more likely they are to experience negative mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and eating and sleep disorders.

The SAFE for Kids Act addresses these mental health concerns for children by requiring social media companies to restrict addictive feeds for users under 18. Instead of the default algorithmically personalized feeds designed to keep young people on the platform, users under 18 will only be shown content from other accounts they follow or otherwise select in a set sequence, such as chronological order, unless they get parental consent for an addictive feed. Users cannot be cut off from the platform simply because they either do not want or do not have parental consent for an addictive feed. Instead, all users will still be able to access all the same content they can access now. The law also prohibits social media platforms from sending notifications to users under 18 from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. without parental consent.

Signed into law by Governor Hochul in June 2024, the SAFE for Kids Act authorized the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to promulgate rules on how companies should comply with the law before the statute goes into effect, including rules that set industry standards for determining a user's age and securing parental consent. The OAG issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on August 1, 2024, and provided the public with a 60-day period to submit comments. The proposed rules were made public for review on September 15, 2025. The OAG incorporated public input, industry research, and its significant experience to inform the proposed and final rules.

Age Assurance

• For users above the age of 17, social media companies must determine that the user is an adult before allowing them to access algorithmic feeds and/or nighttime notifications. Companies may confirm a user's age using any existing method, as long as the methods are shown to meet accuracy benchmarks and protect users' data. Companies can use options such as:
  • Requesting an uploaded image or video; or
  • Verifying a user's email address or phone number to cross-check other information that reflects a user's age.
• Social media companies must offer at least one alternative method for age assurance besides providing a government-issued ID.
• Any information used to determine age or obtain parental consent must not be used for any other purpose and must be deleted or de-identified immediately after its intended use. Social media companies must use only the minimum amount of data necessary to confirm a user's age.
• Minor users must have an option to update their age status on the platform when they turn 18.
• Social media companies must choose an age assurance method with a high accuracy rate, conduct annual testing, and retain the results of the testing for a minimum of 10 years.

Parental Consent

• Minors must affirmatively seek access to prohibited features and must consent to their parent being notified. Any parent who wants to grant consent must go through age assurance.
• The platform may not block a minor user from generally accessing the platform or its content through, for example, searches, simply because they or their parent has refused to consent.
• The platform is not required to show parents the user's search history or topics of interest to obtain parental consent.
• Parents and minors must also have the option to withdraw their consent at any time.

The SAFE for Kids Act and rules apply to "Addictive Online Platforms," defined as platforms that display user-generated content and have users who spend at least 20 percent of their time on the platform's addictive feeds.

The full final rules can be found on OAG's website. The final rules will be published in the State Register on July 29, 2026. The SAFE for Kids Act goes into effect 180 days later, on January 25, 2027.

For companies that violate the SAFE for Kids Act, the law authorizes OAG to bring an action to stop violations as well as to seek civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, among other remedies.

"We welcome the introduction of these detailed and practical requirements for effective and certified age assurance technologies, said Tony Allen, Founder and Chief Executive of Age Check Certification Scheme. "Age assurance can be done. It requires careful and considered implementation, but international standards for age assurance already exist and demonstrate that regulations like these are feasible and will ensure users' privacy."

"As the trade body representing 35 providers offering a wide range of privacy-preserving age assurance solutions, securely conducting over a billion checks a year, we want to recognize the diligence of Attorney General James and her team in finalizing these clear and comprehensive regulations," said Iain Corby, Executive Director at the Age Verification Providers Association. "The final clarifications following the consultation preserve a flexible, technology-neutral approach that platforms can meet using proven solutions already operating at scale around the world. The SAFE for Kids Act was carefully designed to enable access to certain riskier product features at an appropriate age, and this new Rule ensures that users can conveniently prove their age without revealing their identity, using cryptographic techniques through a wide choice of methods, not only physical ID documents. New York has established a world-leading, practical framework, supported by rigorous audit provisions to ensure that platforms implement it effectively."

"The finalized rule strikes an important balance between protecting young people's mental health and preserving access to safe, trusted online resources," said Nadia Swanson, Senior Director of Advocacy and Global Programs at The Ali Forney Center. "LGBTQIA+ youth will continue to be able to access affirming websites and connect with crisis services under the new rule. By providing multiple age verification options that protect user anonymity, Attorney General James has recognized the unique risks that identity verification technologies can pose to LGBTQIA+ and immigrant communities and implemented meaningful safeguards to protect them."

"We applaud Attorney General James and her team for the tremendous work that went into developing the final regulations to implement the SAFE for Kids Act," said James P. Steyer, Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media. "The SAFE for Kids Act, and these new final rules to implement and enforce it, has the potential to be a transformative step forward in protecting children from the addictive design features of social media. We are deeply grateful for the leadership of Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General James, and the state lawmakers who championed this landmark law. 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. 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."

"As the nation's leading nonprofit fighting to protect children from the dangers of social media harms, Fairplay welcomes the new SAFE for Kids regulations released today by Attorney General James," said Brendan Bouffard, Associate General Counsel: AI and Privacy at Fairplay. "For too long, Big Tech companies have been allowed to make massive profits by exploiting our kids, driving them to addiction, severe mental health harms, and even death. But now, thanks to states like New York, the tide is turning. We applaud Attorney General James' leadership in crafting strong rules that make it clear that if Big Tech wants young people to use its products, it needs to make those products SAFE for Kids."

"New York's SAFE for Kids Act is the nation's strongest legislation to protect children online by ensuring they are not exposed to the addictive algorithms running rampant on social media platforms," said Julie Scelfo, Founder and Executive Director of Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA). "These new rules are an important and essential step in the enforcement of this landmark legislation and provide a pathway for other states to follow. MAMA is grateful to Attorney General James and her team for their careful and trailblazing efforts. By tackling addictive and harmful feeds head-on, New York is prioritizing the safety and well-being of our children over Big Tech's bottom line."

"The New York SAFE for Kids Act shows that protecting young people from addictive feeds and late-night notifications can go hand in hand with protecting privacy," said Omari Rodney, Chief Product Engineer at Yoti. "By taking a technology-neutral approach to age assurance, the regulations support innovation while setting clear expectations for accuracy, accountability, and user privacy. Yoti stands ready to help platforms meet these requirements with proven, privacy-preserving age assurance solutions at scale."

In October 2023, Attorney General James, Governor Hochul, Senator Gounardes, and Assemblymember Rozic jointly announced the SAFE for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act, which prohibits online platforms from collecting, using, sharing or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18, unless they receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the purpose of the online platform. In June 2024, the SAFE for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act were signed into law. The Child Data Protection Act is in effect.