Governor Hochul: “What a radical concept: the thought that students should be there paying attention to their teachers and interacting with each other and not these all day long phenomenally destructive distractions which have now taken over children’s childhood and also the classroom environment. So I'm really grateful to have Common Sense Media helping lead the charge to make this a nationwide effort, but particularly here in the State of New York.”

Hochul: “I'm going to keep fighting for this bill. We're in the final stretches now to get this over the finish line. I'm excited about where we are. But I also — I’m not going to compromise our children’s health. And that means I am fighting for a full, all day long “bell-to-bell” distraction-free environment.”

Earlier on Mar 11th, Governor Kathy Hochul joined Common Sense Media to announce a letter to State lawmakers calling for the Governor’s “bell-to-bell” distraction-free schools proposal on behalf of Common Sense Media’s network of 80,000 parents, kids and educators across New York. The full letter can be found here. In the letter, Common Sense Media specifically called for passage of the Governor’s full proposal, which will put commonsense “bell-to-bell” restrictions on smartphones and other internet-enabled personal devices throughout the entire school day. The announcement came after a roundtable hosted by the Governor with a group of New York moms, kids and educators on Common Sense Media’s Day of Action. Following the roundtable, the organization’s representatives are meeting with State lawmakers to deliver their new letter in support of distraction-free schools and support the Governor’s proposals to outlaw AI-generated sexual abuse material and regulate “AI companion” services that have tragically led to self-harm among youth.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

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

Delighted to convene this roundtable to continue my over-a-year-long effort to gather information — speak to parents and students and administrators and everyone else, the educators in particular, the teachers — about this whole concept of having a different environment in school, distraction-free.

What a radical concept: the thought that students should be there paying attention to their teachers and interacting with each other and not these all day long phenomenally destructive distractions which have now taken over children’s childhood and also the classroom environment. So I'm really grateful to have Common Sense Media helping lead the charge to make this a nationwide effort, but particularly here in the State of New York where we want to be aggressive in protecting our children's health.

And there's a lot of people talking about this. I look at this as a point of view from a mom. Fortunately, my kids are older now and they were not in that age when everybody had a cell phone in school, almost. But I see now with all the children in my own family, the nieces and nephews, how debilitating this is.

And so, I introduced legislation in my own Budget that calls for a distraction-free environment all acrossall the schools in the State of New York. I believe it should be uniform. Schools that have wanted to do this have had the opportunity to do so, but many have not. And I've been asked by many legislators or administrators and school superintendents and others to, in one sense, be the heavy.

This is a tough, tough decision for them. They have to go up against school boards and parents who at first blush might be concerned about it, but really there’s been a lot of converts in the schools that have done it and many who say, “Why didn't we do this earlier?”

I'm going to keep fighting for this bill. We're in the final stretches now to get this over the finish line. I'm excited about where we are. But I also — I'm not going to compromise our children’s health. And that means I am fighting for a full, all day long “bell-to-bell” distraction-free environment.

So I want you with me on that effort and I'd like to hear from Liz and see what your thoughts are. But again, I view this from so many points of view. But if I can use the power as the Governor of the State to do something to help our young people get ahead, help their mental health which is under attack all day long, and to do the right thing for them, then I'm proud to be fighting for families. And that's what it's all about.

Elizabeth Foley, the Senior Director of Advocacy at Common Sense Media, let's see what's on your mind and tell us where we're going.