Illinois kids should no longer find themselves scrolling endless online algorithms after Gov. JB Pritzker signed a sweeping online safety bill Friday he said would protect against some of social media’s most harmful effects.
“Our kids deserve the chance to explore, make mistakes and grow up on their own terms, not on an algorithm’s,” the bill’s House sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, said. “That’s what this bill is about: giving our children room to be children, free of a feed that’s optimized to grab their attention.”
The signing marked a win for Pritzker, who pitched the bill as part of his State of the State speech setting his legislative agenda in February and has sought to rein in tech companies’ sway on Illinois kids as he eyes a potential 2028 presidential campaign.
Under the new law, which passed without opposition in the General Assembly and is set to be implemented in 2028, parents are expected to input their child’s age when a phone or device is set up. Social media companies in turn must then only show kids content from people they follow or accounts they search, not endless-scrolling algorithms, according to the governor’s office.
The law also includes provisions to limit strangers’ access to kids’ profiles and inboxes, and it limits certain social media notifications for kids after 10 p.m., which advocates have said is in response to kids losing sleep from scrolling.
The bill applies to platforms including Instagram and TikTok as well as those on which kids can talk to strangers.
Pritzker signed the new law on social media just a few days after he signed separate legislation limiting cellphone use in schools.
Several organizations representing tech companies and business groups opposed the bill during the General Assembly’s spring session. TechNet, which represents large tech company executives, cited potential challenges in implementation as well as concerns about how it would work in nontraditional households. Other states have faced lawsuits over social media age verification bills.
Penalties under the new law will range up to $50,000 per violation.
“Their algorithms learn what captures a child’s attention, which most often seems to be anger and euphoria, and then the algorithm keeps feeding them more of it,” Pritzker said prior to signing the bill Friday. “Why? The almighty dollar. They feed our kids an unrealistic picture of life and sell them products and agendas to achieve it.”
