Video, Audio, Photos and Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at the United Nations General Assembly Science Summit

Earlier on Sep 19th, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered remarks at the United Nations General Assembly Science Summit.

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

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:

Good morning, everyone. And yes, it is great to go to a place that houses the lab of the future. How cool does that sound? And we're so excited. I'm going to drop by later to actually see some of the work that's being done here. Thank you, Seema. Thank you for the invitation to speak to a group of people that are on the cutting edge of solving some of society's most challenging issues.

And as a governor, I'm always trying to find ways that I can contribute to not just the dialogue, but truly to help find solutions that help everyone lead healthier lives. Let's start out with this. Raise your hand if you're a parent. Quite a few. No childless cat ladies here, huh? I digress. I digress. But imagine this, one day a stranger knocks on your door.

And let's say they represent a car company that you've never heard of before and they've got this exciting new model. They want your child to try it out. They want your son or daughter to participate in what would be various crash simulations, right? That could actually, one of the risks is they could be recalibrating their brain and change their brain forever.

But you're told, “Don't worry. No, this is the newest model, it's the car of the future, all their friends are already doing it.” A lot of social pressure to do this. You get that offer at your door, what do you say? “Take a hike.” Every parent would say that, maybe politely, maybe not you must leave here because not only would that happen, but it wouldn't take long for government to shut that down.

Because the idea of agreeing to inflict irreversible damage to our children's brains, is just patently absurd, right? Yet, as a society, we've let smartphones and social media platforms do exactly that. Turning our children literally into crash dummies, while we stand by, helplessly unable to stop the car from speeding toward a brick wall.

That's pretty graphic, but we're talking about how children's brains are being rewired, while we are here passively allowing that to happen. And what it does is it steals precious time and attention from our kids while their brains are still developing. Time that was once spent on a playground, or making friends, learning social skills, exploring nature, joining teams is now spent tapping screens all day long, comparing digital profiles, chasing the likes. “What are they saying about me?” And in person activities that nurture growth are being supplanted by devices that manipulate and take away our kids' attention. And what I have learned, it really drags them into dark spaces.

Smartphone and social media addiction has a stranglehold on our children of today. And I would say, having studied this, and I don't have to be in a lab to do this, I go out and talk to teenagers all the time. It's one of the driving forces behind the mental health epidemic that is plaguing our young people today.

And when I took office, having witnessed what happened to members of my own family, I vowed to make a change. But let's start with mental health overall. This was never an issue that politicians embraced. It was sort of left in the shadows, right? Languished, forgotten. Nobody seemed to care. And I knew we needed a sweeping overhaul, and I made a commitment to deliver the resources and the support to elevate, first of all, the conversation around this.

But I'm not one for half measures. We're not just going to sit around and talk about it. My mental health agenda, which I unveiled last year, was bold, started with money. That's when people know you're committed, $1 billion dedicated to mental health. And we started with outpatient services and more psychiatric beds.

And if you may not know this, a lot of psychiatric beds were taken offline during the pandemic, converted to COVID beds. When it came time to put them back online, the CFOs of the hospitals did a quick analysis and figured out that the reimbursements are higher for the COVID beds or the non psychiatric beds because psychiatric beds are more expensive, right?

More expensive, psychiatric nurse, psychiatrist. So they can be more profitable to leave those offline, even though their license said they're required to have a certain number of psychiatric beds. So I caught on to this, I politely asked them to put the beds back, I threatened, I'm fining hospitals now for being out of compliance, and guess what? They're now complying.

We now have more hospital beds that are dedicated to psychiatric services, so when someone on the subway or on the street needs our help, they have a place to go, whereas a few years ago the doors were shut, there was no availability. So we talked about that first. Then we said, when we take people, let's use the subway for example, we finally convince them to leave.

Where are they going after they have their treatment and their, and their plan? We need more supportive housing units. We expanded our homeless outreach teams, going to people where they are, building the relationships, talking to them, building the trust that is missing, where they finally believe there's someone looking out for their best interests and they'll follow them to get the supportive help they need.

We didn't do this alone. We didn't do it impulsively. Each one was guided by conversations that I had, my team had with professionals. What needs to be done to help these individuals? Everyone is suffering, whether it's urban residents, suburban, rural, it was statewide. But one thing that was at the underpinnings of all this, I saw something that was beyond just people homeless or people with challenges that you'd customarily think of.

Our kids were now in this category of dealing with mental health problems. Kids, at a time in their lives when they should be carefree. So, started with investing millions of dollars in suicide prevention efforts, eating disorder care, peer to peer programs, making sure that schools have mental health clinics and services embedded in them, because I know how hard it is when your child needs help to leave your job, and maybe you leave a minimum wage job, or you lose your income.

Take your child out of school, go either near or far, but you're traveling to take them to their appointment, making sure they go every week while they're missing school. It's hard. It doesn't happen. I said, let's get these services in the schools. It makes all this sense in the world. And we're focused on that intensely.

But as I started moving beyond talking to the adults, going into classrooms or setting up forums and libraries, having real heart to heart conversations, I heard so many shocking stories about mental health and the state of affairs for our children. I sat with 12, 13, 14, 15 year olds. A lot of girls, their whole lives ahead of them.

Now I know this because I'm a former teenage girl. It's a tough time no matter what, right? You have identity issues, you have body issues and acne everywhere and your hair's all straggly and there's a lot of things that affect your mental health. But our parents said that, we had that, everybody had that.

There was nothing unusual, and you get through that. But now, the number of teenagers reporting depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts that never went away. I said, what is going on? That so many of them are even telling me they're contemplating taking their own lives. It felt like their lives didn't belong to them anymore.

It belonged to the algorithms. They were designed to pull them in and keep them tight, **** them in as long as possible. Why? Because social media companies were monetizing our kids' mental health. And according to the American Psychiatric –Psychological Association, teenagers are now spending, on average, five hours a day on social media.

And we have a surgeon general who says three hours a day is detrimental to their mental health. So, what I also listened to was, these are young people still coming out of the pandemic, right? We have a collision course here. The year, year and a half, two years that the kids were isolated, whether they were middle school, high school, college, college – their norms were turned upside down. They were disconnected from reality. Their existence was looking at a cell phone or an iPad. And those were formative years. So, they'll be the first to tell you, they're not over the pandemic. I'm going to guess that all of you are over the pandemic. You don't think about it every day, you don't have this insecurity, but listen to them, their voices.

I came home one day, and my grandma was taken to the hospital. I never had a chance to say goodbye, she was gone. My grandmother was everything to me. This city in particular, the epicenter of the pandemic, every child knew somebody who lost their lives or a parent who lost a friend. It was devastating. We have moved on. I'm telling you, our kids have not. But at the same time, the rise in addictive algorithms from social media companies targeting our kids, hitting them with information that's based on their preferences, why? Because they're tracking the kids. They know what their interests are, so it's clever. It's holding them. It's addictive.

The statistics are shocking. I'm not going to read all the books that are out there, but the studies are clear of what's happening. But right now, we're talking about addictive behavior. It's like cigarettes. They can't put it down. And the parents feel powerless. They see their kid spiraling, and they can't keep them out of this toxic abyss.

And as the first mom Governor in New York, I’ve raised a few teenagers, which is why I can handle a lot of other adults. I know how to raise teenagers, it's a skill that comes in handy up the road. It's the worst feeling in the world when you can't help your child when you see them suffering. It just hits you right here, right? You’d trade places with them, you do anything you could for them. But I have to do something.

And last October, I joined our Attorney General, Tish James, and our partners in the legislature and announced legislation that would shield our kids from the predatory feeds and protect their data. Now we watched what was happening in other states. I'm always wondering what they do in other states. Other states attempted to go this far and were not successful in pushing back the campaign, which is pretty intense from the social media companies. Now let me stop here and say this: we are a tech-based economy here in New York, particularly in the city. We welcome technology companies. I've been at a lot of openings. I've talked to their CEOs. I'm expanding the businesses, giving them more opportunities. We love the fact that we are the number one tech job destination in America today.

It's exciting, but I'm also saying, when we disagree on something, get out of the courtroom, don't sue me. Come into my conference room, and let's solve this together, because I'm going to go out on a limb and say a lot of you CEOs of tech companies are parents as well. How do we protect this generation? So, this past June, we signed two landmark bills into law, first-in-the-nation. The SAFE Kids Act prohibits addictive feeds without parental consent. Name a parent who's going to say I want my child to have addictive feeds in front of them all day. I think we're good on that one. We just have to show the parents the approval process.

This means that the kids can still go to social media sites. This is not about their rights to do this, but only accounts they've chosen to follow, not this unsolicited bombardment, and it can't be curated by addictive algorithms. Another thing, our kids are exhausted. I have family members who sleep half the day on a weekend because they've been on social media all night. I said, “Who are they talking to? Isn't anybody sleeping at all?” Well, guess what? They're talking to people on the other side of the world. Literally. It's fascinating.

Our kids are sleep deprived, they're exhausted, they're addicted, and they don't know what to do about it. And now we also have the Child Data Protection Act that bars tech companies from collecting and sharing and selling kids personal data. It seems like they never should have been able to in the first place, but we had to pass a law to say no more. We moved quickly, decisively, set the bar high for the rest of the states, but also, wouldn't it be better if Congress did the same thing and made it nationwide? That's what should be happening. And so, the Senate passed a set of bills they're not as far as ours, but let's just start somewhere.

And even this week, I think we're breaking some ground here. Instagram announced that they've made some changes when it comes to young people. They've agreed we're going to let them sleep at night. That's good. Improve their privacy. Should have been there all along, but welcome. And also, empowering parents to be able to have an idea of where their kids are going because there are a lot of predators out there. It is a scary, scary place. I saw a statistic that was chilling that almost 100 percent of teenage girls have been solicited, propositioned, or had some sexual contact unsolicited online. Those are our daughters. Those are our granddaughters. This is too far.

So finally, some of the tech companies are waking up. It's good. We're saying what they have to do. But I'm saying social media, over here, that's one piece of the puzzle. What is the vehicle that allows kids to have their lives dominated by social media? It's not just the platforms that are out there, it is the smartphone itself – always buzzing in our kids’ pockets, lighting up on their desks, even in school. We don't allow kids to drink alcohol in school, we don't allow them to vape, we don't allow them to smoke cigarettes. We don't allow them to play video games, right? But they're allowed to have their cell phone with them all day in school?

I mean, adults have a hard time putting down their phones, but we have a teacher in front of a classroom whose sole purpose is to make a connection with that child, look him in the eye, try to impart knowledge, build trust. Talk to a teacher who is so frustrated standing in front of the classroom and being ignored. They're frustrated beyond belief. And these young brains are so susceptible to this addictive and nonstop stimuli, it's like dopamine.

Even a child who breaks out of this, sits in a cafeteria at lunchtime tries to talk to somebody next to them – oh, they'll be ostracized forever. What do you mean you're trying to talk to me?

Everybody's communicating through this. So, how does it make a kid feel? They're not going to do it any longer. Smartphones have connected children with people all over the world, but disconnected them from the people in their immediacy around them. It's disconnected them from the people in the room.

And so, this has lasting consequences. Young brains cannot develop in a virtual world the way they would have if they were left carefree. And managing risk, and conflict, and social interaction, and collaboration – and the creative collisions that we want them to be able to do when they're adults.

Imagine kids are silent in classrooms, silent in the hallway, silent in gym, silent in the cafeterias – silent after school because they're all communicating online now with each other. But when they get out of school, we want them to come to a workplace, Collaborate, work with others, look each other in the eye, act like a real social being.

How do they make that leap if they don't start when they're kids? It's not happening. So we're also hindering the workforce of tomorrow that our employers are looking for. People come to New York because we're creative here, but that creativity isn't happening alone in someone's basement. It's what you're doing with other human beings, other people. And they don't get the joy and camaraderie of working on something together.

So, we don't teach a kid about friendship by showing them 100 online videos about how to make friends. You take them to a playground, right? Put them with other kids. Put them on a soccer team. You don't learn to play baseball on YouTube – you go out on a team. We need to get them back into real life.

And so, the shift from a play-based childhood that we grew up with to a phone-based childhood is robbing children of those experiences. It's stealing the spontaneity and the wonder that makes childhood so special. And in school, one drama teacher told me the kids aren't even trying out for chorus or for acting – because someone is videoing it. “I'm going to post it online and mock them.”

And that is the worst thing for these young kids. They'll just retreat and say, “I'm not even trying. “ One girl says, “Why are you on it now? I'm sitting there, the Governor's doing a forum with you and you still are looking at your cell phone.”

And she says, “Well, I get mocked a lot. I need to know what they're saying about me. They mock my clothes, my hair – I'm getting mocked and I need to know. I need to know. I need to know if they're meeting in the girl's lavatory and I'm not invited. I need to know what they're going to be doing. I need to know. I need to know.”

It was pathetic to see this child. So, what are we gonna do about it? when a child says to me at a forum, “You have to save us from ourselves.” That we have to be the ones, the adults, who stop this in a classroom because we can't be the ones, we'll be scorned forever – I'm paying attention to that.

I cannot tune out the needs of a child crying for help, and nor should anyone in our state. So, here's what I'm going to be focusing on. Speaking Friday morning at a statewide conference in Albany, sponsored by the New York State Teachers Association.

They're leading the charge. 72 percent of teachers surveyed across America are saying, we are frustrated because we're not able to break through to our kids. So, teachers are on board with this, saying there cannot be unlimited cell phones in a classroom. I don't think they should be in school at all.

And I'll tell you this, my first thought as a mother, whose kids were in middle school when Columbine occurred. The mass shooting in a school that shook us to our core. My thought was we need to be connected with our kids all day, right? You need to be able, if something happens, they have to be able to text you I love you, right?

I talked to enough people in law enforcement who said that is the absolute last thing you want your kid to be doing if there is a crisis on campus of any kind. They need to be following the adults in the classroom who get them to safety. Not creating videos, not texting their friends – not reaching out to anybody.

It's not safe for them. And I think the more parents who hear that message, it'll help them realize that just as they and their parents and grandparents got through school without constant communication with their parents throughout the day – which allows them to be more independent, more thinking independently, not tied so close to home when they should be emerging as self sufficient individuals and ultimately adults. We have to convince them that this is the right way to go.

Jonathan Haidt wrote an extraordinary book, saying the never ending stream of interruptions takes a toll on adolescents' ability to think, and leaves permanent marks on their rapidly reconfiguring brains. So here's what I'm going to do – I'm staying in the fight. I don't mind getting knocked around a little bit. It's part of the game, right?

But when I see a problem and I see a solution that is not being tackled, I will lead the charge. And I need individuals like yourselves to assist with this, to use your voices, your platforms to support this – because we have to save this generation of kids, that's what's at stake here.

And we can stop it now, before it goes any further. And their younger siblings will never have to be exposed to this. They will grow up as the carefree adults that maybe their teenage brothers and sisters do not have right now. So we're going cell phone free. Ultimately, we have to find the right path, working with others on what that looks like.

But I want to thank all of you for listening to this plea for help through my voice, but it's actually the children of our state that were calling for help. Thank you very much.