{"id":476064,"date":"2025-12-28T01:20:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T01:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476064\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T01:20:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T01:20:19","slug":"ny-bans-anonymous-child-abuse-reports-to-prevent-misuse-as-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/476064\/","title":{"rendered":"NY bans anonymous child abuse reports to prevent misuse as harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new law next year will require callers to New York\u2019s child abuse and neglect hotline to leave their name and contact information<\/a>, ending a practice of \u201canonymous reporting\u201d that advocates said was ripe for harassment.<\/p>\n

Though lodging malicious reports of child maltreatment were already illegal, anonymity has made it virtually impossible to hold bad actors accountable for abusing the system. But prior efforts to end the practice hit a snag out of fear it could deter necessary reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The legislation, signed by Gov. Hochul in the final days of this year, aims to strike a balance: While banning anonymous reporting, it also prohibits the state from releasing identifying information<\/a> about a confidential reporter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my decades working in the field, we see folks abuse this system routinely,\u201d said Christine Gottlieb, an assistant law professor at New York University and the director of its family defense clinic. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s landlords, sometimes it\u2019s neighbors who have some sort of grievance, sometimes it\u2019s an ex-partner of the adult. It really can be anyone, and that was the problem: Anyone could pick up the phone and trigger this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis legislation is a significant change because it will decrease the number of malicious, false reports that lead to extremely invasive investigations<\/a> that are very distressing to children and parents unnecessarily,\u201d Gottlieb added.<\/p>\n

\"Gov.Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a press conference Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Queens, in New York City. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In New York City, one in 24 child welfare cases is called in by an anonymous reporter, but such calls are rarely found credible, according to the New York City Family Policy Project. Just 6.7% of cases based on anonymous calls were substantiated in 2023,<\/a> compared to 22.5% of all cases, the think tank found. Those cases often involve Black and Brown low-income families, and may be traumatizing \u2014 involving home visits or even strip searches of children.<\/p>\n

The reforms, advocates say, will spare families such an experience, while freeing up resources to focus on credible allegations of child abuse instead of frivolous reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support limitations on anonymous reports to curb malicious reporting, with appropriate carve-outs that keep children safe should the [hotline] operator believe a child is in imminent risk or the child is the caller,\u201d said Marisa Kaufman, a spokeswoman for the Administration for Children\u2019s Services. \u201cWe look forward to seeing the chapter amendments and to a future without anonymous, malicious reports.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill was sponsored by State Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn) and Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens), and passed both houses of the state Legislature with a majority of support. It was amended by Gov. Hochul \u2014 whose office did not return a request for comment \u2014 to allow for anonymous reporting by minors themselves.<\/p>\n

With the governor\u2019s signature, New York will become the third state \u2014 after Texas and California \u2014 to ban or discourage anonymous reporting<\/a>. The law will go into effect next summer, after hotline operators receive training in how to answer questions about confidentiality protections and when to transfer callers to a supervisor.<\/p>\n

Joyce McMillan, a parent advocate who for years has been pushing for an end to anonymous reporting, celebrated the measure\u2019s signing into law, which she said will help \u201cstop the overzealous behavior toward families \u2014 that just destroys them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy the governor saw the importance of this bill at the end of the day,\u201d McMillan said, \u201cand chose to do what was right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new law next year will require callers to New York\u2019s child abuse and neglect hotline to leave…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":476065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1370,728,405,403,5294,5296,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-476064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-county","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115794571318375258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}