B-Roll, Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Kicks Off Statewide Listening Tour on Tackling Smartphone Use in New York Schools

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul kicked off a statewide listening tour focused on addressing smartphone use in schools. This listening tour will include roundtable discussions with key stakeholders over the coming months. As the Governor has emphasized, stakeholder engagement will play a key role as she develops a statewide policy proposal on smartphones in schools that will be announced later this year.

B-ROLL of the Governor convening a youth mental health roundtable on cell phone use in schools is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Now I'd like to take a moment to talk about cell phones in our schools, which is what brought me to Guilderland High School here today. I just met with parents, educators, local leaders, advocates, to hear from them about the challenge of cell phones in schools and how they impact our children's education. And talking about is this actually the kind of environment we want to have for our children to continue to learn in.

Two years ago, I started holding mental health listening sessions with teenagers to find out why the rates of suicide, depression, anxiety were so high for them. We came to the conclusion that addictive social media algorithms were affecting the mental health of children and teens in a significant way. In fact, the Surgeon General of the United States came to the same conclusion. Those listening sessions here in New York led us to take on the social media companies that create these addictive algorithms, and we did something very significant about it.

Last month, I signed into law two bills that protect our children from these addictive feeds and protect them from having online entities collect personal identifying information about them and selling it to other entities. We knew those bills would face intense opposition from big tech and all the entrenched interests, but we developed our policies smart and pragmatically by making sure that the community was incorporated every step of the way. We involved teachers, educators, parents in those earlier conversations, which led us to the result that we're so proud of – nation leading.

The result was clear. We overcame the intense lobbying and it passed almost unanimously. That's what brings me here to today. That is our methodology. That's how we can kickstart the conversation with a similarly thoughtful plan around cell phones in our schools.

I saw a statistic last month that I haven't been able to forget – that 72 percent of teachers across the nation report that cell phones are a major distraction for students in their classrooms. Same study found that 95 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds have access to smartphones and they're receiving over 250 notifications per day on average.

So, couple of observations. I am the first mom Governor of New York. I'm hardwired to worry about our children and their safety, of course. But it's also impossible to ignore the reality that this generation more than others is being subjected to distractions that never existed the way they are now. There's a screen flashing in their face. They're experiencing FOMO. Are they missing out on something at this very moment? And what I heard from teachers who are trying so hard to just do what's right. But the principals, the superintendents also told me about what happens when students are there capturing everything that happens with their cell phone. It's instigating more fights and they're setting up activities that they want to capture so they can become a social media star themselves. So, it's feeding itself and a constant pull of attention away from their studies.

I'm not blaming the kids, I'm not blaming the parents, I'm not blaming the administrators. It's hard enough for adults to pull themselves away from cell phones. I can't imagine how hard it is for these young people as well. But also, it's time to start figuring out solutions here. The status quo is not working for our children in particular. And I want to make sure we continue to incorporate community feedback. I want to hear from more parents and hear from more teachers. So, we're going to focus on this. I'm going other places around the state – this is my first stop, studying what other states are doing as well. So, the same playbook we used to address teenage mental health, we're incorporating again to begin the process.

I was joined by a number of our local elected officials, starting with Mayor Kathy Sheehan, she joined us. Assemblymembers John McDonald, Pat Fahy joined us as well, and I want to thank them for being there to hear this conversation, as well as Melinda Person, who is the head of NYSUT for the State of New York.

So, we'll be doing much more. I'm excited about this. This is an opportunity for us to lead and also to demonstrate that at times when it's difficult to enact policy at the local levels because of intense pressure from many sources, New York State can also step up and provide the guidance that is necessary at this time.