1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

Today, I'm writing about how New York approaches kids and technology. As you've probably seen, California just passed a package of online child safety bills, and they got it half right. AB 1709, which Governor Newsom signed this month, functions as a ban on social media use for anyone under 16. I'd urge you not to follow that path — as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have argued, blanket bans don't teach young people anything and raise serious First Amendment concerns. Kids who grow up cut off from these platforms graduate into a world full of them, unprepared. But California also did something genuinely worth copying, and I hope you'll champion it in Albany. Two companion bills, AB 2071 and AB 2298, take an affirmative approach: AB 2071 folds digital wellness into middle and high school health classes, teaching students to recognize unhealthy tech habits, protect their personal safety, and evaluate digital content — including AI-generated media — for credibility and bias. AB 2298 adds cybersecurity concepts to school curricula so young people know how to protect their personal data from online threats. Importantly, these bills address real concerns about young people's internet use without restricting their rights, and students themselves supported them. New York needs this. A recent state audit found that New York City schools lack basic cybersecurity policies, and that employees sometimes skip required security trainings entirely. Teaching kids how their phones actually collect and leak their data would go further than any prohibition ever will. Rather than following California on bans, I'd ask you to sponsor or support comparable legislation here — age-appropriate digital literacy and cybersecurity instruction woven into the standard curriculum, developed with educators rather than imposed on them. Thank you for your time and for your service. I'd welcome the chance to hear your thoughts on this.