New York's Pioneering Age Verification Rules for Social Media: A Landmark i

Published Date : 9/17/2025 

New York State has proposed groundbreaking age assurance rules for social media platforms, aiming to protect minors from harmful algorithms and notifications. The rules have received high praise from industry experts for their clarity and effectiveness. 

A new proposal in New York State that aims to lay out age assurance rules for social media is gaining significant traction and praise from top voices in the biometrics and digital identity industry. The Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act, signed into law in June 2024. This act targets algorithms that personalize feeds for teen users and are designed to be addictive.

The OAG states that these feeds can track tens or hundreds of thousands of data points about users to create a stream of media that can keep minors scrolling for dangerously long periods of time. Consistent with robust research from child mental health experts, the Legislature found that these hours spent on social media have caused harm to New York minors, including depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.

The Act prohibits addictive feeds for young users and bans platforms from sending notifications between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. The OAG has been tasked with promulgating regulations that identify commercially reasonable and technically feasible methods to determine that a user is not a minor before providing them with an addictive feed or nighttime notification, and to identify methods of obtaining verifiable parental consent for an addictive feed or nighttime notification.

What has won particular praise from age assurance providers are the Act’s standards for effective, secure, and privacy-protective age assurance. Unlike some other online safety legislation, such as the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA), SAFE gets specific on numbers for minimum accuracy levels and minimum percentage rates for detecting method circumvention. The Act defines “Accuracy Minimum” as a rate of false positives for an age assurance method that is equal to or less than 0.1 percent for minors ages 0 to 7, 1 percent for minors ages 8 to 13, 2 percent for minors ages 14 to 15, 8 percent for minors age 16, and 15 percent for minors age 17, excluding failures or refusals by a user to provide requested data and inconclusive age assurance outcomes. Additionally, the rate of detecting method circumvention for an age assurance method must meet or exceed 98 percent.

These clear guidelines for performance are exactly what providers have been asking for since the age assurance conversation began. Yoti CEO Robin Tombs, in a post on LinkedIn, calls it “by far the clearest and smartest set of age checking regulations that deliver privacy-preserving, highly effective age assurance.”

It’s not just the statistical specificity that appeals; Tombs has a long list of things that OAG has clarified. These include crucial practices like operators must implement data minimization and deletion, and statements on certification like every age assurance method must be certified annually by an accredited independent third party under international standards (ISP/IEC 27566, IEEE 2089.1, or other). The Act also recognizes the potential of zero knowledge proofs (ZKP) and double-blind age verification methods.

VerifyMy has also taken note of New York’s proposal. “While the law is driven by evidence that algorithmically-curated feeds fuel depression, anxiety, and other harms, the heart of the new guidelines is about practical, privacy-preserving age assurance to make those protections real,” says a blog from the company, which calls SAFE’s approach to age checks “encouraging.”

“The rules are inclusive, robust, and privacy-preserving, without being overly restrictive. Rather than relying only on traditional identity documents for age checks, they embrace innovative age estimation and inference (for example, checks based on a user’s email address), while recognizing that accuracy is highest for younger children and naturally more nuanced for 17-year-olds close to adulthood.”

Perhaps most significantly in a global context, the OAG provides a statement that backs up the findings of Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial (AATT), which has faced questions about its methodology. “OAG can confirm that today, the age assurance market includes a robust variety of products that perform at a high accuracy rate, easily integrate with online platforms, handle large user volumes, and prioritize the preservation of user privacy and protection of user data,” says the NPRM.

“Age assurance products can be selected and customized to meet different business models, user populations, and compliance obligations. Age assurance providers are already servicing clients in the U.S. and globally, including many of the largest social media platforms, and are supported by a trade association, standards bodies, and providers of certification and testing.” The OAG also reiterates the often-stated point that the age assurance industry is aware its technology isn’t perfect but continues to refine and improve it.

To Robin Tombs, the OAG’s rules are “smart, clear details relating to commercially reasonable and technically feasible methods of age assurance.” He suspects that these rules will be copied by many age verification regulators around the world over the next 1-3 years. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: What is the SAFE for Kids Act?

A: The SAFE for Kids Act, or Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act, is a law in New York State that targets algorithms used by social media platforms to personalize feeds for teen users. It aims to protect minors from harmful, addictive content and notifications.

Q: What are the key provisions of the SAFE for Kids Act?

A: The Act prohibits addictive feeds for young users and bans platforms from sending notifications between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. It also requires platforms to use commercially reasonable and technically feasible methods to verify user age and obtain verifiable parental consent.

Q: What are the standards for age assurance in the SAFE for Kids Act?

A: The Act sets specific standards for age assurance, including minimum accuracy levels and detection rates for method circumvention. For example, the false positive rate for minors ages 0 to 7 is 0.1 percent, and the rate of detecting method circumvention must be at least 98 percent.

Q: Why are industry experts praising the SAFE for Kids Act?

A: Industry experts praise the Act for its clear and specific guidelines on age assurance, which provide a high level of clarity and effectiveness. It also emphasizes privacy-preserving practices and the use of innovative age verification methods.

Q: How does the SAFE for Kids Act compare to other online safety legislation?

A: Compared to other legislation like the UK’s Online Safety Act, the SAFE for Kids Act is praised for its specific and detailed standards for age assurance, which provide clear guidelines for performance and implementation. 

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