IL child social media safety plan arrives on Pritzker's desk

Illinois legislators have sent House Bill 5511 to Governor JB Pritzker, a measure designed to implement strict new safety and privacy regulations for youth social media accounts. The bill targets the use of addictive algorithms, restricts location sharing, and aims to prevent fraudulent financial transactions involving minors. This legislative push reflects a growing trend of state-level intervention in the social media sector to address concerns over child safety and data privacy.

House Bill 5511, which passed unanimously in both the Illinois House and Senate, introduces comprehensive restrictions on how social media companies interact with younger users. The legislation specifically bans the use of addictive algorithms for youth and prohibits on-platform location sharing to enhance user safety. Furthermore, the bill includes provisions to stop scam financial transactions between minors and strangers, addressing a critical security vulnerability on these platforms.

The proposal places a significant emphasis on data privacy and parental oversight. According to Pritzker administration legislative advisor Lindsey Vols, the bill adds protections to the device-level assurance process to prevent children's data from falling into the wrong hands. It also grants parents of minors aged 16 and older the ability to override privacy settings. For children under 16, parents can similarly override settings if they approve of the specific content being accessed, effectively shifting more control from platforms to families.

Enforcement of these new standards will fall under the purview of the Illinois Attorney General, though the act explicitly does not create a new private right of action for individual lawsuits. This regulatory expansion comes amid significant legal pressure on the social media industry. Senator Willie Preston noted that there are currently more than 10,000 individual cases and nearly 800 school district lawsuits pending against social media companies, alleging that platform designs have contributed to serious harm to children.