Mussman-Backed Child Digital Safety Bill Passes House

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumburg, aided in passing a bill to better protect children on social media by allowing parents to develop personalized settings for monitoring algorithms, limiting notifications, requiring parent approval for purchases and more.

“Research shows how deeply the use of social media is impacting our children, from attention deficiencies to issues with body image,” said Mussman. “Putting in new parental controls over the things that keep children scrolling on social media will hopefully encourage kids to put their phones and tablets down.”

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

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.

“The restrictions this bill creates would be totally left for parents and families to decide,” said Mussman. “We’re simply providing a tool for parents and families to use however they see fit, and in the way that best supports their children.”

House Bill 5511 now goes to the Senate for consideration.

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