Skip to content
A4809Assembly2017-2018 Session

Let Parents Read Kids' Texts

Official title

“Authorizes a parent access to retrieve and view text messages on a minor child's telephone”

Sponsor Michele TitusAD-31+4 co-sponsorsAffects Public Safety & Consumer Affairs
Status
In Assembly Committee
Consumer Affairs And Protection
Impact
5/10
Moderate
Passage
0%

Bill progress

Step 2 of 7

In committee · Consumer Affairs And Protection

What's happening

This bill requires phone companies to offer parents the option to access their minor child's text messages, possibly for an extra fee.

Why it matters

  1. Expands Parental Oversight. This bill gives parents a new tool to directly monitor their minor child's text messages, potentially enabling earlier intervention if there are concerns about bullying, risky behavior, or unlawful activity.

  2. Impacts Privacy Expectations. The measure could shift norms and expectations around minors’ digital privacy, raising questions about trust, autonomy, and family dynamics, especially for older teens.

  3. Alters Phone Company Responsibilities. Phone companies would be required to develop systems to allow parental access to texts, which may introduce technical, security, and administrative challenges, and possibly increase costs for families.

  4. Potential for Legal and Ethical Debate. The bill may spark legal and ethical discussions regarding minors’ rights to privacy versus parental rights to supervise, potentially influencing future legislation on digital privacy and family law.

The daily · weekday mornings

Albany, before your first meeting.

Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.

Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.

Who cares

Headline styles

Let Parents Read Kids' Texts

Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.

Sponsors

Primary sponsor
Michele Titus

Assembly Member · Assembly District 31

History

  1. Referred to consumer affairs and protection
  2. Referred to consumer affairs and protection

Full text

1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗

STATE OF NEW YORK

4809

2017-2018 Regular Sessions

IN ASSEMBLY

February 3, 2017

Introduced by M. of A. TITUS, COOK, MOSLEY, COLTON, STECK -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ARROYO, PERRY -- read once and referred to the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection

AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to authorizing a parent access to retrieve and view text messages on a minor child's telephone

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. Section 399-dd of the general business law, as added by chapter 487 of the laws of 2006, is renumbered section 676 and a new section 677 is added to read as follows:

§ 677. Contract option to view child's text messages. 1. A contract between a telephone company and a customer shall offer the customer the option to retrieve and view text messages that are sent from or received by the customer's minor child's telephone. The contract may include an additional fee for this option.

2. For the purposes of this section, the terms "telephone company", "telephone", and "customer" shall have the same meaning as in subdivision one of section six hundred seventy-six of this article.

§ 2. Sections 676 and 677 of the general business law, section 676 as renumbered and section 677 as added by section one of this act, are designated article 32-A and a new article heading is added to read as follows:

TELEPHONE RECORDS AND ACCESS

§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD02627-01-7

Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.