On September 15, 2025, the New York State Office of the Attorney General (OAG) hosted a briefing on their proposed rules for the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, which was signed into law in June 2024, and requires social media companies to restrict the addictive features on their platforms that most harm young users. Given our ongoing support for this legislation and the work we do at C.A. Goldberg, PLLC to protect children online, our firm was invited to the briefing and our Legislative Analyst Jian Hong Shi attended!
Our firm is all too familiar with the tragic consequences of insufficient product safety features (see Grindr, Amazon, Omegle, etc.), and we are proud to have been involved in the drafting of the OAG’s rules. In these proposed rules, New York State Attorney General (AG) Letitia James and her team thoroughly researched and carefully balanced child choice and privacy with necessary design safeguards; they found that age assurance and verification technology is both precise and economical, making it even less excusable for platforms to not employ it. You can read more about the briefing here.
“C.A. Goldberg, PLLC commends Attorney General James and her team for the diligence and research that went into creating these balanced rules,” said Naomi Leeds, Partner, and Jian Hong Shi, Legislative Analyst at C.A. Goldberg, PLLC. “For too long, social media companies have felt empowered to sideline the safety of the children they profit from. These rules rightly put onus where it belongs—on the platforms themselves.”
This briefing was a culmination of our firm’s involvement in this legislation, from its inception all the way to the finish line. In October 2023, Carrie and Naomi were special guests of AG Letitia James, Governor Kathy Hochul, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, and Assemblymember Nily Rozic when they announced new legislation to put new controls on social media platforms to help protect children’s mental health. One of the bills introduced was the SAFE for Kids Act, which we already had been working on with Senator Andrew Gounardes for two years. The New York Child Data Protection Act was also introduced at this time, which would prohibit all online sites from collecting, using, sharing, or selling personal data of anyone under the age of 18 for the purposes of advertising, unless they receive informed consent or unless doing so is strictly necessary for the purpose of the website.
On June 20, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul signed this legislation to protect children online and Carrie was there to witness New York becoming the nation’s leader in protecting kids on social media platforms. This was an incredible day for our firm and for everyone throughout the state, because before these laws existed, there were limited ways to hold tech companies accountable in New York.
Learn more about the September 15 briefing and the proposed rules to the SAFE for Kids Act. A public comment period on the proposed rules is open for 60 days, and the deadline to submit comments is December 1, 2025. The OAG seeks comment on every aspect of the proposed rules and from various individuals, including parents/caretakers, young people, educators, academics, mental health professionals, consumer and child advocacy groups, privacy advocacy groups, industry participants, and other members of the public. After this public comment period closes, OAG has one year to finalize the rules, and once those are released, the SAFE for Kids Act goes into effect after 180 days.
To submit a comment on the proposed rules, email ProtectNYKidsOnline@ag.ny.gov.
