Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 1 p.m. (New York City time), Council Chambers - City Hall
Committee: Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use
The Committee on Mental Health and Substance Use held a joint oversight hearing with the Committees on Children and Youth (Chair Althea V. Stevens) and Oversight and Investigations (Chair Shekar Krishnan) on the effects of social media and screen time on youth mental health. Four bills were discussed: Intro 250 (limiting youth social media use to one hour per day absent parental waiver and banning targeted ads to youth), Intro 451 (a report on social media's effects on youth mental health), Intro 660 (a study of altercations among youth under 24 in DYCD-funded programs, sponsored by Deputy Speaker Nantasha Williams), and Intro 801 (adding childcare and early childhood education opportunities to the Summer Youth Employment Program). The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Department of Youth and Community Development testified, presenting data showing roughly 35% of public high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless and discussing TeenSpace, which registered approximately 36,000 youth in its first two years. No votes were taken; the bills were discussed. Public testimony overwhelmingly opposed Intro 660 over surveillance and privacy concerns, with speakers urging investment in community-based mental health and youth programs instead.
0:06 To approach this all? Yeah.
0:06 Good afternoon. Welcome to the
0:36 New York City Council hearing
0:37 for the committee on children
0:39 and youth, along with mental
0:40 health and substance use and
0:43 oversight investigation,
0:44 please. Science, all cell
0:46 phone devices moving forward
0:46 no one is to approach the as
0:48 we are ready to begin. Good
0:54 afternoon. I'm council about
0:56 the a's Stevens, chair of New
0:57 York City Council committee on
0:59 children use. I'd like to
1:01 think chair. Come on and share
1:03 Chris for joining this
1:05 important oversight on the
1:06 effects of social media and
1:07 screen time on used mental
1:09 health. We will also be
1:10 hearing the following
1:11 legislation in 250 sponsored
1:13 by myself, which prohibits
1:14 social media companies from
1:17 allowing youth to use social
1:18 media for more than one hour
1:20 per day unless waived by a
1:22 parent or guardian.
1:23 Additionally, social media
1:24 companies will be prohibited
1:27 for promoting targeted
1:27 advertisement or content to
1:33 use control 451 sponsor also
1:35 sponsored by myself will
1:37 require and consultation with
1:39 the on the effects cecil
1:40 stream media has on mental
1:42 health for youth and throw 6 6
1:44 0, sponsored by deputy speaker
1:46 Williams will require the and
1:48 with the director of Mayor,
1:49 the mayor's office for
1:51 neighborhood safety should
1:52 study in person altercations
1:55 among individuals under 24
1:57 years of age to attend program
1:58 it funded by the u. S City
2:01 sponsored by myself will
2:03 require to include within it's
2:05 summer youth employment
2:06 program, an apprenticeship in
2:09 turn in and credit bearing
2:11 opportunities for some of you
2:12 in the childhood and early
2:13 childhood education sectors
2:17 .today's hearing comes at a
2:18 time when there is a growing
2:21 concern both nationally and
2:22 here in New York City about
2:23 the well being of our young
2:25 people. Data from the
2:26 department of health and
2:28 mental hygiene and the u. S
2:29 sanxiety, depression and
2:33 feelings of hopelessness among
2:35 youth over the past decade. At
2:38 the time social media use has
2:41 become normal, nearly
2:42 universal among teenagers and
2:44 increasingly common among
2:47 young children, the research
2:48 show the research begin a
2:51 ssuggesting a clear association
2:52 between social media usage and
2:54 negative mental health
2:54 outcomes when it comes to
2:58 factors like cyber bullying so
3:00 social compromised and sleep
3:03 decoration at the same time,
3:03 it is important to acknowledge
3:05 that this relationship is
3:08 complex. The evidence does not
3:12 establish caution and many
3:12 young people report that
3:14 social media also provides
3:16 meaningful benefits
3:17 connections to the community
3:18 an opportunity for self
3:19 expression, the complexities
3:23 should god our approach, the
3:24 goals. The hearing is to
3:26 better understand the
3:27 addictive patterns and t
3:28 oassess how the City can
3:30 respond in a way that
3:32 thoughtfully evidence base and
3:34 grounding and real experience
3:34 of young people New York City
3:38 has already taking a number of
3:39 steps in this space from the
3:41 launch of team space, so the
3:42 expansion of school basements
3:44 of health services to the
3:45 development of community based
3:47 interventions like ease and
3:50 the City has made meaningful
3:51 investments in youth mental
3:53 health at the time we must
3:54 examine how effective those
3:56 programs are reaching young
3:58 people were gap remain and how
4:00 we can strengthen coordination
4:03 across agencies. We are also
4:07 considering
4:07 . Several pieces of
4:08 legislation today that seeks
4:09 to address different aspects
4:10 of this issue from ranging
4:12 from restricting social media
4:13 use among youths to improve
4:16 relevant data and reporting on
4:16 social media impacts those
4:20 proposal rise important
4:20 questions about the
4:22 implementation and privacy and
4:24 effectiveness and today's
4:25 hearing is an opportunity t
4:27 oexplore those questions in
4:32 depth, ultimately our
4:33 responsibilities to ensure
4:34 that New York City is doing
4:35 everything it can to support
4:37 mental health and the wel
4:37 lbeing of its young people
4:40 .this means investing in
4:42 digital literacy expanding
4:43 access to meant to hel
4:44 psupport and guiding family and
4:46 caregivers to promote safe and
4:48 responsible use of digital
4:51 platforms I look forward t
4:53 ohearing from agency partners
4:54 and stakeholders today and so
4:56 working collaboratively, so
4:58 identify solutions that bulls
5:01 partial, partially and effects
5:04 impact. I would like to thank
5:05 our staff are senior policy
5:08 analyst elizabeth arts are
5:09 senior committee counsel role
5:14 create russell on oh,
5:16 ogasawara for their hard work
5:18 and preparing for this hearing
5:21 our entire team back at the
5:24 district office district 1
5:26 6and graham, a hero now t
5:27 ogabon for her opening
5:32 statement.
5:33 Thank you, chair. I've been
5:33 waiting to co chair with you.
5:34 I I know this is our first
5:36 hearing together with Krishnan
5:38 . We haven't had a joint
5:39 hearing and four years. Good
5:43 afternoon. All my name is
5:44 Council Member Tiffany carbon
5:45 chair of the New York city's
5:46 council New York City
5:47 council's committee on mental
5:48 health and substance use I
5:49 want to thank chair Stevens
5:50 and chair Krishnan as well as
5:51 everybody joining us today,
5:54 the administration researchers
5:55 , clinicians, advocates
5:56 ,educators, young people after
5:59 school and families. We're
6:00 here to help us to better
6:02 understand the rapidly
6:04 evolving relationship between
6:05 social media use and youth
6:06 mental health in New York cit
6:08 y, it's no secret that the
6:09 landscape, young people are
6:10 growing up in is fundamentally
6:11 different than it was even a
6:14 decade ago. Social media is no
6:15 longer just a tool for
6:16 connection. It's an
6:17 environment where identity is
6:19 shaped where relationships are
6:20 formed and fractured and where
6:22 attention itself has become a
6:23 commodity. And while that
6:25 environment can offer
6:26 meaningful opportunities for
6:27 connection and expression. We
6:28 also must be honest about its
6:30 harms, particularly for young
6:31 people and those harms are not
6:35 evenly distributed black and
6:36 latino youth lgbt plus youth,
6:37 immigrant, youth youth with
6:39 disabilities and young people
6:40 experiencing housing
6:41 instability or poverty often
6:43 face disproportionate exposure
6:45 to cyber bullying to targeted
6:47 harassment, exploitation and
6:48 identity based stress online
6:49 and for many social media is
6:50 not simply a space of
6:52 comparison or distraction.
6:53 It's a space where they are
6:56 actively surveilled,
6:57 marginalized or attacked
6:58 ,and these experiences have
7:01 measurable consequences for
7:02 anxiety for depression for
7:03 self esteem and a sense of
7:04 safety and at the same time
7:06 you 02:00 are already carrying
7:07 the weight of structural
7:09 inequities offline are often
7:09 the most dependent on digital
7:12 spaces for social connection
7:14 for affirmation and
7:14 . Survival and that tension
7:15 between harm and necessity has
7:18 to shape how we think about
7:20 policy
7:20 . Responses and it's clear
7:21 that the mental health impacts
7:22 of social media use our real
7:25 clinical research increasingly
7:27 points to the association
7:28 between heavy and compulsive
7:29 use of social platforms and
7:31 symptoms consistent with
7:34 addiction clinicians are
7:34 reporting increased sleep
7:35 disruption linked to late
7:36 night device use with
7:38 downstream effects on mood
7:39 disorders, academic
7:40 performance and physical
7:41 health and the has already
7:43 documented that most
7:44 adolescents are not meeting
7:46 recommended sleep thresholds
7:47 and social media uses a
7:48 contributing factor in the
7:49 thing I will continue to say
7:50 about sleep there is that it
7:52 is incredibly dangerous to be
7:55 sleep deprived and the effects
7:57 on your brain can't be
7:59 reversed. We also have to
8:01 confront how rapidly the
8:03 information ecosystem itself
8:04 is changing misinformation and
8:07 disinformation late at scale
8:08 often amplified by systems
8:10 optimized for engagement
8:11 rather than accuracy and with
8:12 the rise of generated content
8:14 we are entering a New phase
8:15 where the line between
8:16 authentic and synthetic
8:18 material is increasingly, but
8:19 I mean, sometimes I don't kno
8:22 w
8:22 . The difference as we all
8:22 . Know. Yeah, maybe at the
8:24 same time it would be
8:26 irresponsible to treat social
8:27 media as solely a source of
8:28 harm because for many young
8:29 people, especially those who
8:30 are isolated due to geography,
8:33 disability, family rejection
8:33 and other circumstances. These
8:35 platforms provide lifelines of
8:38 connection. Queer youth, fo
8:38 rexample, often find affirming
8:39 communities online that are.
8:40 Unavailable in their
8:42 immediate environment,
8:42 immigrant, youth and english
8:43 language learners use digital
8:45 spaces to maintain cultural
8:46 ties and access information in
8:47 their own languages and across
8:49 movements for racial justice
8:50 ,climate action, labor
8:52 organizing social media has
8:53 been a powerful tool for civic
8:55 engagement and collective
8:56 action
8:56 . So ultimately this hearing
8:57 is about clarity and
9:00 responsibility clarity about
9:01 what the evidence tells us and
9:01 responsibility to act on it
9:03 without.
9:03 Minimizing harm or
9:04 overstating certainty where
9:05 the science is still emerging
9:07 are young people are
9:08 navigating a digital
9:09 environment that is powerful,
9:10 it's persuasive and it's
9:12 persistent and they deserve
9:13 policies that reflect that
9:14 reality in full, it's harms
9:15 its benefits and the profound
9:17 inequities and how those
9:18 impacts our experience.
9:20 So I look forward to the
9:21 testimony today you're working
9:22 together to ensure that our
9:22 response is grounded in public
9:24 health equity in the lived
9:25 experiences of the youth that
9:25 we serve. So thank you, and
9:26 I'll turn the mic back to.
9:30 Stevens. Thank you. Chair
9:31 daylight. Rosa, a minority
9:36 leader car and ariella
9:38 ellenson
9:38 . I was turned over to chair
9:42 Krishnan. Thank you so much,
9:44 sherif Stevens. Good afternoon
9:45 , everyone. I am council
9:46 member shaker Chris, chair of
9:48 the committee on oversight and
9:50 investigations. I want t
9:50 othank counts member out there.
9:52 Stevens, chair of the
9:53 committee on children and
9:54 youth and counsel are Tiffany
9:56 cab on share of the committee
9:56 on mental health and substance
9:59 use for coach sharing our
10:00 first time co chairing a
10:01 hearing together and for their
10:03 unwavering leadership on this
10:04 issue. I'd also like to thank
10:06 the representatives from the
10:07 administration, members of the
10:08 public and my council
10:09 colleagues who have joined us
10:14 here today. We are here today
10:14 to examine the effects of
10:16 social media and screen tim
10:17 eon our young people, mental
10:19 health, our current market is
10:22 unchecked and unregulated,
10:23 leaving social media companies
10:25 able and eager to keep our
10:26 youth on social media for
10:28 longer periods of time by
10:31 pushing content that forces
10:35 their attention increasingly
10:36 that content is violent news,
10:38 dangerous trends and fueling
10:39 feelings of isolation and
10:41 anxiety with never ending
10:43 scrolling and read receipts
10:45 .I'd like to show you today.
10:47 Exactly what our young people
10:49 are seeing on social media
10:59 every day, you know drones.
11:12 What? Congratulations to, you
11:20 know what we think I started
11:30 working out the girl with
11:31 visible abs just asked me for
11:31 my routine celebrate the small
11:32 victories, check out the lin
11:33 kbelow to learn more about
11:33 trimmer x and their
11:37 personalized no, no. You. Wel
11:48 l, we just saw is 100% caused
11:51 by the greed of social media
11:53 companies like instagram ex
11:54 tic tac and snapchat. Our kids
11:57 are being fed dangerous trends
11:59 encouraging them to choke
12:00 themselves until they black
12:01 out criticize their friends
12:03 and highlight their
12:04 insecurities and participate
12:05 in games that manipulate them
12:06 into self harm and suicide,
12:10 the endless scroll and need to
12:11 go viral are feeding our
12:14 children's insecurities,
12:15 encouraging bullying and
12:15 telling them that in order t
12:16 omake friends they need to risk
12:18 their lives. The the that had
12:21 front seats at a front row
12:22 seats at donald trump's
12:24 inauguration are given
12:24 unchecked power to by our
12:27 children. Attention spans,
12:28 sell them dangerous trends
12:29 from subway serving 2 30 gap
12:31 sand profit from an unchecked
12:32 and unregulated market social
12:36 psychologists like jonathan
12:37 hate have long sounded the
12:38 alarm on the collapse of child
12:40 and adolescent mental health
12:41 across the globe as a result
12:43 of the shift from playing
12:44 independence to screens and
12:48 social media. Today's hearing
12:49 will examine how we are losing
12:51 the power struggle at a
12:52 critical moment in our digital
12:56 era, the social media crisis
12:57 we face is the crisis of this
12:59 era of this generation of
13:01 youth and today we will learn
13:02 is New York City prepared to
13:05 regulate these unchecked
13:06 markets for our youth. How can
13:09 we keep our children safe from
13:10 harmful and aggressive
13:13 algorithms. We must take back
13:14 our power from these billion
13:16 dollar social media companies
13:17 and protect our youth. Th
13:19 ecity now has taken a critical
13:21 step by suing four companies
13:23 tick tock, instagram, facebook
13:26 and snapchat, and a lawsuit
13:27 alleges that the companies
13:28 deliberately designed,
13:29 marketed and distributed their
13:31 platforms to maximiz
13:32 eengagement among children they
13:34 use algorithms to drive
13:36 addiction, endless scroll
13:37 strategically time
13:38 notifications snap streaks and
13:40 read notifications that are
13:41 all exploit adolescent
13:44 psychology. That lawsuit just
13:45 like big tobacco talks about
13:48 social media and its harms
13:50 being a public nuisance, but