New Youth Online Safety Office Raises Serious Questions for Parents

This executive order doesn’t immediately change the law — but it changes the policy battlefield.

Friends,

Governor Mikie Sherrill recently signed her sixth executive order creating a new Office of Youth Online Mental Health Safety and Awareness within the New Jersey Department of Health. We acknowledge that Gov. Sherrill is a mother of four children and that her concern about this subject is real and sincere. 

However, according to the Governor, this new office will coordinate a “whole-of-government” approach to protecting children’s mental health online, particularly as it relates to social media, smartphones, algorithms, and artificial intelligence.

We agree on one important point: children’s mental health is declining, and families deserve real solutions that place their well-being first.

However, this announcement raises important and unanswered questions for parents.

Will Parents Be Respected — or Bypassed?

During her campaign, Governor Sherrill publicly supported mandating expansive LGBTQIA+ curriculum in schools and opposed measures that would strengthen parental notification and consent. Parents across New Jersey have repeatedly raised concerns about schools:

Introducing sensitive gender and sexuality content without parental knowledge

Encouraging secrecy between children and parents

Undermining families’ values and guidance

If the Governor believes children need protection from harmful online influences, why has she supported policies that expose children to ideological content in the classroom — even over parental objections?

A Troubling Double Standard

The executive order correctly notes that algorithm-driven content can harm children by prioritizing engagement over well-being.

Parents are asking a fair question:

If children need protection from social media algorithms, why doesn’t the same concern apply to state-mandated curricula that promote contested gender ideology to young students?

How does a “whole-of-government” approach to youth mental health square with policies that:

Dismiss parents as primary decision-makers

Treat parental concern as a problem rather than a safeguard

Encourage schools to withhold information from families

Transparency Matters

The new office has broad authority to review policies and recommend changes across state agencies. Yet the executive order is silent on several critical issues:

Will parents be consulted before new guidance is issued?

Will parental rights and religious freedom be explicitly protected?

Will this office oppose classroom secrecy policies that harm trust between parents and children?

Protecting children’s mental health cannot mean sidelining parents.

Our Position

The Center for Garden State Families believes:

Parents, not government, are the primary caregivers and moral guides of their children

Mental health protection must include honesty, transparency, and family involvement

The state cannot claim to protect children online while promoting ideological mandates in schools that divide families

We will continue to monitor Governor Sherrill’s actions closely and ask the questions Trenton often avoids.

New Jersey families deserve consistency, clarity, and respect — not double standards.

Sincerely,
Gregory Quinlan