New York Assembly Bill A04065 Latest Draft

   
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4065 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY January 31, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. CUNNINGHAM -- read once and referred to the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to requiring social media networks to verify the age of account holders The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new section 2 394-cccc to read as follows: 3 § 394-cccc. 1. For the purposes of this section, the following terms 4 shall have the following meanings: 5 (a) "Account holder" shall mean a person who has, or opens, an account 6 or profile to use a social media network's platform. 7 (b) "Division" shall mean the consumer protection division established 8 pursuant to section ninety-four-a of the executive law. 9 (c) "Social media network" shall have the same meaning as set forth in 10 paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section three hundred ninety-four- 11 ccc of this article. 12 2. A social media network shall verify the age of an existing or new 13 social media account holder: 14 (a) for a new account, within thirty calendar days of the date the 15 account holder opens the account; or 16 (b) for an existing account, if the account holder has not provided 17 age verification, within thirty calendar days of such account holder's 18 first attempt to access such account after the effective date of this 19 section. 20 3. A social media network shall use a third party vendor to complete 21 the age verification required pursuant to subdivision two of this 22 section. 23 4. If an account holder fails to complete the age verification 24 required pursuant to this section within the required time period, the 25 social media network shall deny access to the account: EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD06543-01-5 
 A. 4065 2 1 (a) upon the expiration of the time period; and 2 (b) until all age verification requirements are met. 3 5. The division shall: 4 (a) establish processes or means by which a social media network may 5 meet the age verification requirements under this section; 6 (b) establish acceptable forms or methods of identification, which 7 shall include but shall not be limited to a valid identification issued 8 by a government entity; 9 (c) establish processes for providing confirmation of the receipt of 10 any information provided by an account holder seeking to verify their 11 age pursuant to this section; 12 (d) establish requirements for retaining, protecting, and securely 13 disposing of any information obtained by a social media network or its 14 agent as a result of compliance with the age verification requirements 15 under this section; 16 (e) require that any information obtained by a social media company or 17 its agent as a result of compliance with the age verification require- 18 ments under this section shall be retained for the sole purpose of such 19 compliance and shall not be used for any other purpose; and 20 (f) require other applicable state agencies to comply with the age 21 verification requirements under this section. 22 § 2. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivi- 23 sion, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of 24 competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, 25 impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in 26 its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section 27 or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judg- 28 ment shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of 29 the legislature that this act would have been enacted even if such 30 invalid provisions had not been included herein. 31 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 32 have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or 33 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of 34 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed 35 on or before such effective date.