Committee on Children and Youth meeting
April 21, 2026, 1:00 PM
Jointly with the Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use and the Committee on Oversight & Investigations.
The Committee on Children and Youth held a joint hearing on the effects of social media and screen time on youth mental health along with four related bills addressing city reporting on social media impacts (Int 0451) and in-person school altercations (Int 0660). No votes were taken.
What was discussed
- Three committees open a joint hearing on social media and youth mental health Council Member Althea Stevens (Children and Youth), Council Member Tiffany Cabán (Mental Health and Substance Use), and Council Member Shekar Krishnan (Oversight and Investigations) co-chaired their first joint hearing in four years on the effects of social media and screen time on youth mental
- Health Department lays out its youth mental health programs and view of social media harms Dr. Jorge Petit, DOHMH Executive Deputy Commissioner and Director of Community Services for the Division of Mental Hygiene, testified that about 35% of NYC public high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless, with sharp disparities by race, gender and sexual orientation. He described
- How does prolonged screen time affect youth physical and mental health? Assistant Commissioner Marnie Davidoff (DOHMH) told Council Member Tiffany Cabán that how youth use screens matters as much as how long, with passive scrolling tied more closely to depression and anxiety than active, interest-based use. Dr. Jorge Petit said clinicians increasingly favor the term
- How is the city targeting and evaluating its social media guidance for the highest-need communities? Assistant Commissioner Marnie Davidoff (DOHMH) told Council Member Tiffany Cabán that the department's two guidance documents are publicly available and disseminated with DYCD partners, that impact is hard to measure but tracked through the biennial YRBS, and that a 23-member Youth Committee on
- Is Teenspace reaching the youth who need it, and where are the gaps? Assistant Commissioner Marnie Davidoff (DOHMH) told Council Member Althea Stevens that Teenspace, a three-year demonstration project for ages 13-17, registered roughly 36,000 youth in two years with about 80% identifying as BIPOC, and that only about 12% cited social media as a presenting problem
- How does DYCD guide social media use in its contracted youth programs? Deputy Commissioner Darryl Rattray (DYCD) told Council Member Althea Stevens the agency has not adopted a blanket policy but is in discussions with providers, some of whom extended the schools' cellphone ban into afterschool hours with positive results. Rattray said the EASE (Early Adolescent Skills
- What does the science say about social media's addictive design and the adolescent brain? Dr. Jorge Petit (DOHMH) told Council Member Shekar Krishnan that platforms are built around variable-reward schedules similar to slot machines, and cited a longitudinal study finding habitual checking was associated with increased amygdala reactivity and reduced self-regulation in adolescents whose
- What data does the city collect on minors, and will it use local data to drive policy? Assistant Commissioner Marnie Davidoff (DOHMH) assured Council Member Rita Joseph that Teenspace data is protected and used only for service provision, with no other allowable use, and that the department collects local data and translates outreach into the city's top languages. Joseph pressed the
- What is the city doing about online harms to LGBTQ, Black, Latino, and immigrant youth? Assistant Commissioner Marnie Davidoff (DOHMH) told Council Member Tiffany Cabán the department markets services in disproportionately affected communities but conceded it has not developed clinical guidance on identity-based stress and would defer to NYC Public Schools on multilingual
- Would limiting youth to one hour of social media a day (Intro 450) have a measurable benefit? Assistant Commissioner Marnie Davidoff (DOHMH) told Council Member Althea Stevens the department is not aware of a study specifically testing whether a one-hour daily limit would improve youth outcomes, and was likewise unaware of research distinguishing the mental health effects of heavy social
- Does the administration support Intro 451's social media reporting mandate? Deputy Commissioner Darryl Rattray (DYCD) read the agency's position that the population-level research, longitudinal data collection and clinical analysis Intro 451 envisions exceed DYCD's operational capacity, though it welcomes collaboration. Assistant Commissioner Marnie Davidoff (DOHMH) said
- Does Intro 660's altercation study amount to surveillance of young people? Deputy Commissioner Darryl Rattray (DYCD) told Council Members Althea Stevens and Tiffany Cabán that DYCD does not monitor social media, that case-level documentation as the bill is written would require roughly $5 million in systems and staffing, and that a top-level aggregated approach would be
- Should Intro 801 expand summer youth jobs in early childhood education? Deputy Commissioner Valerie Mulligan (DYCD) told Council Member Althea Stevens the agency agrees SYEP is a strong on-ramp to early childhood careers—over 32,000 participants worked in childcare and education settings last year—but worried about fitting credit-bearing components into SYEP's six weeks
- Children's Aid backs the safety and workforce bills but questions Intro 660's monitoring Adria Cruz, Deputy Director of Health Programs and Integration at Children's Aid, testified that the organization sees rising anxiety, depression and device-related peer conflict, and supported Intros 450, 451 and 801 while warning that Intro 660's added monitoring could shift youth providers toward
- Legal Aid's Juvenile Rights Practice says Intro 660 expands surveillance, not safety Jasiyah Gilbert, Client and Community Engagement Manager at the Legal Aid Society's Juvenile Rights Practice, testified against Intro 660, arguing it would extend surveillance into youth's online lives, disproportionately affect Black and Latino youth, and push them to disengage from programs and
- Brooklyn Defender Services warns Intro 660 raises FERPA, HIPAA and First Amendment problems Talia Kamran, an attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services, testified that Intro 660's undefined 'altercation' trigger creates vagueness and privacy risks, could conflict with FERPA and HIPAA where programs touch schools and mental health services, and duplicates existing NYPD social media
- Legal Aid Society calls Intro 660 racist in application and worse than the gang database Cassandra Kelly, a Policy Attorney at the Legal Aid Society, testified against Intro 660, arguing it would turn DYCD providers into extensions of law enforcement, surveil mostly Black and brown youth across afterschool, shelters, sports and summer jobs, and build something more expansive than the
- A crisis-management organizer says Intro 660 would blur support and surveillance Matthew Brodwith, a Community Organizer with the Legal Aid Society's Community Justice Unit working with crisis management sites, testified that credible messengers and violence interrupters are effective because they build trust, and that asking them to monitor youth social media would blur the
- We The People frames bullying as the root cause and opposes Intro 660 as written Cherokee Dickens, Executive Director of We The People 4 The People By The People, testified that bullying is often a young person's first trauma and a pipeline to isolation, mental health challenges and substance use, and urged investment in community-based, restorative and youth-led prevention
- Literacy Inc. backs Intro 801 but urges early-literacy training in the jobs it creates Karen Rogel, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Literacy Inc. and coordinator of City's First Readers, testified in support of Intro 801 and urged that its childcare apprenticeships and internships include structured, evidence-based training in early literacy and child development so the city
Agenda
5 items
- T2026-1559 Oversight - The Effects of Social Media and Screen Time on Youth Mental Health. Hearing Held by Committee
- Int 0450-2026 A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to restricting social media usage for youth Hearing Held by Committee
- Int 0451-2026 A Local Law in relation to requiring the city to report on the impact of social media on the mental health of young people Hearing Held by Committee
- Int 0660-2026 A Local Law in relation to requiring a study and report on in-person altercations among youth and their associated activity on online platforms Hearing Held by Committee
- Int 0801-2026 A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to creating apprenticeships for early childhood education Hearing Held by Committee