New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is making kids\u2019 online safety a cornerstone of her administration, and she\u2019s eyeing a platform that has often flown under the radar: Roblox.<\/p>\n
As progress in Congress has stagnated, states have become the primary drivers of internet reforms meant to protect kids, including age verification laws and new requirements for online platforms. Hochul announced a sweeping plan<\/a> to expand online parental controls and age verification, which she\u2019ll tout at her State of the State on Tuesday. It notably pulls from a piece of legislation crafted by state Sen. Andrew Gounardes and Assemblymember Nily Rozic meant to plug a gap in earlier state legislation in order to encompass online gaming. Gounardes told The Verge<\/a> in a 2024 interview when he first introduced the legislation as the New York Children\u2019s Online Safety Act (NYCOSA) \u2014 now the Stop Online Predators Act \u2014 that the idea came from parents who wondered whether his earlier kids safety legislation would cover Roblox, the social gaming platform that is extremely popular with children.<\/p>\n Drawing from the bill, Hochul\u2019s plans include expanding requirements for platforms to verify their users\u2019 ages to include online gaming platforms like Roblox. She also wants platforms to keep kids\u2019 accounts on the highest privacy settings by default so that they can\u2019t be seen or contacted by unknown accounts, and to disable AI chatbot features for kids. The plan also includes requirements for parents to be able to limit financial transactions on their kids\u2019 accounts.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no reason platforms like Roblox should be different\u201d<\/p>\n New York state leaders don\u2019t want Roblox, for which more than 40 percent of users are reportedly under age 13<\/a>, to be left out of new protections. \u201cFrom toys to food to cars, we regulate all sorts of products to keep children safe. There\u2019s no reason platforms like Roblox should be different,\u201d Gounardes said in a statement ahead of the State of the State. \u201cOnline platforms like Roblox are enabling unsafe environments for children, including allowing predators to send explicit messages to children,\u201d New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. \u201cWe urgently need to pass crucial online safety protections to stop predators from exploiting children and create safer online environments for children to play.\u201d<\/p>\n Roblox did not immediately provide comment on the State of the State proposal, but Roblox spokesperson Eric Porterfield told The Verge after Gounardes unveiled the legislation in 2024 that the company is a \u201cCOPPA compliant gaming platform that is designed for all ages,\u201d referring to the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). Porterfield said Roblox has \u201cgone beyond COPPA-compliance and built safety tools and systems that address the unique needs of children and do not support photo uploads or other features specific to social media platforms.\u201d The company has since rolled out<\/a> new requirements for users to undergo a facial scan to estimate their age in order to access its chat features.<\/p>\n States have been at the forefront of such discussions as Congress has largely failed to pass new protections<\/p>\n The kids online safety proposals were the first of the State of the State plans that Hochul previewed last week, underscoring how important an issue that internet safeguards for kids has become in states like New York. States have been at the forefront of such discussions as Congress has largely failed to pass new protections since the 1990s. The proposals come alongside offline actions to address kids\u2019 mental health, including expanded mental health clinics in schools, and an advisory board that includes 11-to-17-year-olds to inform youth mental health policy. They build on earlier legislation passed in New York state, including the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) For Kids Act<\/a>, which requires social media companies to obtain parental consent for using \u201caddictive feeds\u201d on kids.<\/p>\n But some of the proposals, like age verification<\/a>, come with their own risks that opponents ranging from industry players to civil liberties groups oppose on the grounds that they could require more data collection, and potentially chill adults\u2019 speech online. The Supreme Court recently opened the door<\/a> to some age verification of porn sites, breaking from earlier decisions, but age-gating platforms that host a wide variety of speech raises even thornier questions. Courts across the country have struck down a variety of laws seeking to impose age verification at the platform and app store level<\/a>, raising questions of constitutionality under the First Amendment. But states have continued to try to enact different kinds of age verification laws nonetheless, creating the potential for a fractured landscape state to state should some courts eventually uphold them.<\/p>\n Still, many advocates for more online safeguards are praising Hochul\u2019s plans. \u201cThe online games kids play and the social media platforms they use for hours and hours a day have become veritable hunting grounds for predators,\u201d Common Sense Media CEO Jim Steyer said in a statement. \u201cKids and teens need these new protections now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Gov. 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