Gong-Gershowitz Child Safety Bill Passes House

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A measure by state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, to better protect children online passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.

House Bill 5511 would place new restrictions on children’s social media accounts and allow parents to have greater control over their children’s online actions.

“Parents deserve peace of mind when their kids are online,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “Big tech has deliberately designed their products to become addictive, and study after study has shown that our kids have been caught right in the middle of it.”

The bill would have parents input their child’s age while setting up a new device. When new software is installed or a new website is visited, a number of settings will trigger by default, unless a parent authorizes otherwise. These settings include:

• Prohibitions against social media companies using addictive algorithms and limiting social media notifications to daytime hours.
• Requiring apps to obtain parental consent for in-app purchases or any transaction between children and unknown users.
• Requiring companies to apply default privacy settings based on a user’s age to protect the user’s location data and profile information.

Parents would be able to tailor these restrictions to meet their child’s needs and better monitor their online activity. 

“This bill is about doing right by our kids and making sure that parents have the tools they need to keep their kids safe,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “Social media offers a chance for people to connect to the world like never before, but it’s important to make sure our kids aren’t being negatively impacted by that connectivity.”