Hochul calls for smartphone ban in NY schools: ‘Leave our kids alone’

Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling for a ban on kids using smartphones in school — the latest in a campaign against technology she feels is harming New York’s children.

The proposal would only allow kids to carry simple “dumb” phones in schools that can send texts but can’t access the internet, the governor told The Guardian in an interview published Thursday.

The call for the smartphone ban comes as the self-professed “first mom governor” of New York is pushing for a ban on “addictive” social media algorithms that she says target kids.

“Our kids are being pulled into a place that is often very dark,” she said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“I’m saying, leave our kids alone…stop selling our kids personal data for your financial gain.”

The smartphone ban — which Hochul plans to push in the state’s next legislative session beginning January 2025 — was short on details, such as how kids would do homework, which some do on a phone.

Also there was no comment on kids who use phones for security, if older children would be exempt or if smartphones would be allowed on campus but not be allowed to be used.

When asked for comment on the Guardian article, a Hochul spokesperson referred the Post to a statement the governor made to reporters last week in which she said “no” when asked if kids should have smartphones in school.

Tribeca mom Atsuko Desadier told the Post she’d support a bill helping curb her two kids’ access to smartphones.

“I have a 14-year-old and I want to ban Snapchat and TikTok,” she said. “Snapchat is really bad.”

“I think schools should ban cell phones during school so the students can focus.”

But some students told the Post they’re skeptical Hochul’s ban would work.

Darlin Mendez, 14, a student at the High School of Economics and Science in Tribeca, said teens simply would find a way around it.

“There’s pros and cons. Sometimes we use social media a lot and it can be distracting. But we do need it for school,” she told The Post. 

Heissel Ajsivinac, 17, a student at the same school, also expressed concern that a ban would actually harm teens’ studies.

“In our school we have a lot of trouble with the internet sometimes so even signing onto the computer to do certain assignments isn’t easy,” she said.

“It’s easy to pull out your phone and you have everything there.”

Meanwhile, under the proposed The Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (Safe) for Kids, which is now being considered by lawmakers, social-media companies would be barred from displaying content for kids that use algorithms designed to keep their eyes on the screen.

New York Child Data Protection, which will also come up for a vote soon, would restrict companies from selling minors’ user data and require services to offer parental controls.

Hochul wrote in a recent Post op-ed that the measures are “personal” for her as her granddaughter soon will join millions of kids online.

“We owe it to her generation to put guardrails in place to protect her mental health, just as previous generations did with the pressing issues of their time,” she wrote.

“We stopped marketing tobacco to kids. We raised the drinking age. And today, we’re fighting to protect kids from the defining problem of our time.”