Gov. Kathy Hochul unveils her first 2026 State of the State priority on Monday at a high school in Hamburg, Erie County. (Courtesy Darren McGee/Office of Gov. Hochul)

Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to do more to keep kids safe online, and this year will push for legislators in Albany to enact broad new restrictions on how online platforms can make children’s accounts available for interaction and expand age verification requirements.

At an event in Erie County on Monday, Hochul announced that she will take up a bill introduced by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, D-Brooklyn, and Assembly member Nily Rozic, D-Queens. The bill would require online platforms that allow children on them to implement commercially viable age verification, block open chat functions for children’s accounts, require parental permission to reestablish open chat functions or add new connections for kids younger than 13 years old, and restrict parental approval for users under 13 to add new “friends.”

Gounardes, Rozic and Hochul have taken aim at the online platform Roblox, which is an expansive video game platform with millions of users younger than 16 years old in the U.S. and internationally. Roblox has a wide array of child-focused games and content, and although it has been in existence for more than 20 years, it has only recently started to garner more scrutiny from regulators, parents and online safety activists.

The bill backed by Hochul goes even further, by also disabling generative predictive text, artificial intelligence model chat features from being enabled on children’s accounts, and requiring all platforms provide parental restrictions on financial transactions on their platform.

“As New York’s first mom governor, the well-being and safety of our children has always been one of my top priorities, and today we are continuing to break new ground to give our kids the tools and safeguards they need to contend with the unprecedented mental health challenges and real world dangers that can sometimes be a byproduct of navigating today’s digital world,” Hochul said. “These proposals will create a nation-leading standard that will ensure our kids’ safety in online and real world environments where they spend time.”

It builds on the existing state laws regarding children’s online safety, including the SAFE For Kids Act passed last year. The New York Attorney General’s Office in September finished its rule-making process under that law, finalizing the regulations social media companies and online platform operators will have to follow. Public comment on the draft regulations closed on Dec. 1, and the final rules are being drafted now.

In a statement shared alongside the governor’s, Attorney General Letitia James called out Roblox.

“Online platforms like Roblox are enabling unsafe environments for children, including allowing predators to send explicit messages to children,” she said. “We urgently need to pass crucial online safety protections to stop predators from exploiting children and create safe online environments for children to play.”

On top of that legislative goal, Hochul wants to expand mental health training for thousands of teenage New Yorkers, expanding a Teen Mental Health First Aid curriculum to all 10th graders in the state. Phased in over time, the goal is to reach more than 180,000 students each year.

That curriculum will focus on identifying, understanding and responding to signs of mental health problems and substance abuse in peers, and providing tips on having conversations about mental health or substance abuse.

A youth-focused mental health training program will also be developed for adults who work with kids in schools and community programs.

“Teen Mental Health First Aid helps young New Yorkers talk with their classmates and friends about mental health issues and provides them with the know-how to get them help when it is needed,” said Dr. Ann Marie Sullivan, director of the state Office of Mental Health. “By expanding this program, Governor Hochul is continuing her steadfast commitment to improving youth mental health and providing our young people with the skills they can rely on to live and thrive among the challenges they face today.”