Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill into law that requires social media platforms to display mental health warnings about addictive features and their risks to adolescents. The New York State mandate targets platforms such as TikTok and Meta products, highlighting potential harms including anxiety and depression linked to excessive use. The legislation, which took effect following its passage on December 26, 2025, marks a significant shift by imposing labels similar to those long required on tobacco and alcohol products.
Legislative Path to Enactment
The new warning-label requirement began as state legislation that explicitly sought to put mental health disclosures on social media platforms, building on earlier debates about how to hold large tech companies accountable for youth harms. Lawmakers framed the bill as a response to mounting evidence that features like endless feeds and constant alerts can keep teenagers online far longer than they intend, which in turn has been linked to higher rates of anxiety and depression. As described in coverage of the new state legislation that seeks to require social media warning labels, the measure was designed from the outset to mirror the public health approach used for other addictive products.
Assemblymember Nily Rozic and Senator Andrew Gounardes sponsored the bill, centering their arguments on protections for youth mental health and the need for clearer information about digital risks. According to reporting on how Governor Hochul signed the law for mental health warnings on addictive social media features, Rozic and Gounardes argued that adolescents deserve the same kind of upfront caution that already appears on cigarettes, alcohol, and age-rated video games. Their sponsorship signaled that the legislature was prepared to treat social media design choices as a matter of public health policy, not just consumer preference.
Once the bill cleared the legislature, passage advanced quickly, and Hochul’s signature on December 26, 2025, activated the mandate without any additional waiting period. As detailed in an account of how New York will require social media platforms to display mental health warnings, the law took effect immediately upon signing, signaling urgency from state leaders who say adolescents are already experiencing the consequences of unregulated addictive features. That rapid timeline raises the stakes for platforms, which must now adapt their interfaces and legal strategies in real time rather than over a long phase-in period.
Details of the Required Warnings
Under the statute, platforms must display warnings that specifically address mental health risks associated with addictive social media features, including infinite scrolling, autoplaying videos, and persistent notifications. Reporting on the measure explains that the labels are intended to appear in connection with these engagement tools, so that users see a caution at the point where design choices are most likely to keep them online. Coverage of how New York mandates mental health warnings on social media notes that the law focuses on the mechanics of use, not just on generic statements about screen time, which reflects a growing policy view that interface design itself can be addictive.
The labels are required to emphasize harms to adolescents, including increased anxiety and depression that have been associated with prolonged exposure to social feeds and algorithmically curated content. In accounts of the new law, supporters point to research that links heavy social media use with poorer mental health outcomes for teenagers, and they argue that clear warnings can help families make more informed decisions about how and when young people use these apps. The description of how New York State will require warning labels on social media platforms underscores that the labels are meant to be prominent and standardized, so that adolescents and parents encounter consistent language about risk regardless of which major platform they open.
Lawmakers also drew explicit parallels between the new social media warnings and existing labels on tobacco, alcohol, and video games, arguing that addictive digital content should be treated with similar caution. Reporting on Hochul’s signing ceremony notes that she and the bill’s sponsors invoked the history of cigarette package warnings and age ratings for violent games as examples of how public health messaging can shift behavior over time. In the account of how Kathy Hochul signed a bill requiring warning labels on social media platforms, officials describe the law as part of a broader effort to normalize the idea that digital products, like physical ones, can carry health risks that warrant clear, state-mandated disclosure.
Affected Platforms and Compliance
The mandate applies to a wide range of social media services, with particular attention on TikTok and Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, which have large adolescent user bases in New York. Coverage of the policy notes that these companies will need to integrate mental health warnings into their apps for users in the state, potentially through location-based settings or account-level controls. One report on how New York is requiring TikTok, Meta, and more social media platforms to display mental health warnings highlights that these firms already face lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over youth harms, and the new labels add another layer of compliance pressure.
The law is written broadly so that social media platforms operating in New York must comply, with no specific exemptions for smaller operators or niche services. That scope means that any platform offering feed-based content and interactive features to New York users will need to assess whether its design triggers the warning requirement, even if the company is not a household name. An overview of how New York will require social media platforms to display mental health labels notes that the state is positioning itself as a national leader in regulating digital environments for young people, which could influence how start-ups and established firms alike design their products for a market that includes millions of New Yorkers.
Compliance obligations began immediately after Hochul signed the bill, shifting the landscape from voluntary disclosures to enforced labeling as of December 26, 2025. The account of how New York’s social media warning labels law took effect upon the governor’s signature explains that platforms are now expected to move quickly to avoid potential enforcement actions. For users, that rapid implementation could mean that warning messages start appearing in apps in the near term, while for companies it raises operational questions about engineering changes, legal risk, and the possibility that other states might adopt similar rules.
Implications for Users and Public Health
For adolescents in New York, the most immediate change will be the appearance of mental health warnings during routine app use, particularly when they interact with features that encourage prolonged engagement. Reports on the law describe how these labels are intended to alert young users that heavy reliance on social media can be associated with anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges, without banning the apps outright. The description of how New York mandates mental health warnings on social media emphasizes that policymakers see the labels as a tool to prompt reflection and conversation among teenagers, parents, and educators about what healthy use looks like.
State officials also present the law as a shift away from a largely unregulated environment in which addictive features were treated as neutral design choices, toward a framework that treats them more like tobacco and alcohol in terms of user caution. In coverage of how Hochul’s law aligns social media with tobacco, alcohol, and video games, supporters argue that warning labels can help rebalance the relationship between powerful engagement algorithms and young users who may not fully understand how those systems shape their behavior. From a public health perspective, the law is intended to complement, not replace, other interventions such as school-based education, parental controls, and potential future limits on specific design practices.
New York’s move could also shape national standards, both by inspiring similar legislation in other states and by nudging federal regulators to consider consistent rules across the country. An analysis of the state legislation that seeks to require social media warning labels notes that large platforms often prefer uniform compliance regimes, which can lead them to adopt a single approach nationwide rather than maintaining separate versions for each jurisdiction. If that pattern holds, labels designed to satisfy New York’s requirements could eventually appear for users far beyond the state’s borders, effectively turning a state-level law into a de facto national standard for how social media companies communicate mental health risks.
