SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A measure—sponsored by state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, and state Sen.Willie Preston, D-Chicago—that would help parents better protect children online passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly and awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature.

Gong-Gershowitz’s House Bill 5511 would create the Children’s Online Social Media Safety Act, a landmark bill that would enable parents to more effectively control the types of content their children can consume online, standardizing and improving on many existing private-market parental controls. 

“It’s far more common today than at any point previously that kids will spend a significant chunk of their time online, and that fact has profound implications for our duties as parents,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “The Children’s Online Social Media Safety Act will empower parents to set limits to ensure that their kids’ online activities don’t cause more harm than good.”

The bill would have device-makers supply a settings panel where parents could 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 third-party 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 legislation is about creating guardrails that put children before corporate algorithms,” Preston said. “We cannot continue allowing online platforms to prioritize engagement and profit over the mental health, privacy and well-being of young people.”

The bill comes as concerns have risen for years over the negative impacts of social media on children’s mental and physical well-being—a worry backed up by a growing body of psychology, child development and sociology research.

“We know that too many tech companies are deliberately designing their apps and devices to encourage endless scrolling and constant screentime,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “Our kids’ well-being should not be thrown aside in the name of increasing revenue through additional advertisements or the latest microtransaction scheme. Big tech has fallen far short of its moral and ethical responsibilities to protect our kids, and this legislation will empower parents to take back control.”

House Bill 5511 cleared both legislative chambers on June 1 and was sent to the governor.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, ended the 2026 spring legislative session by helping craft a responsible budget that makes life more affordable for working families and passing legislation that creates new consumer protection laws, particularly protecting against the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI).

“These past few months have been focused on addressing both familiar kitchen table issues and protecting our state from the harmful effects of the AI frontier,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “While our federal leadership stands by as costs skyrocket and technology evolves, my colleagues and I are committed to fighting for the families of our state.”

Gong-Gershowitz, worked to pass a budget that cuts the cost of government bureaucracy, gives local governments tools for property tax relief, fully funds community-based approaches to public safety and provides funding for social services amid federal cuts.

In addition to her work in passing a balanced budget, Gong-Gershowitz was the lead sponsor of House Bill 5511 and, as chair of the House Democratic AI Working Group, guided all three of the following measures through the General Assembly:

• House Bill 5511, which creates the Child Social Media Safety Act, banning the addictive algorithmic feeds that keep children glued to their screens. The measure passed the House with bipartisan support.
• Senate Bill 318, which restricts automated bots from purchasing mass amounts of event tickets online, driving up costs for consumers.
• Senate Bill 315, which mitigates catastrophic harms created by AI Frontier Models. Under this bipartisan legislation, AI firms would be subject to new reporting and disclosure requirements for potential safety incidents.

Gong-Gershowitz chairs the House Democratic AI Working Group, which was established by Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch earlier this year in order to launch a multifaceted approach to AI policy in Illinois.

The working group has been instrumental in building consensus around common- sense, consumer-focused protections that are technically sound and grounded in the real-world impacts on Illinois families.

“Protecting users from manipulative technology is not a partisan issue, and these pieces of legislation have proven that,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “Artificial intelligence and data-driven algorithms are no longer emerging technologies – they are already shaping nearly every aspect of our daily lives. As legislators, it is our responsibility to adapt our consumer protection laws now, before the harms outpace our ability to respond.”

All three measures have passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly and now head to the governor’s desk for consideration.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, ended the 2026 spring legislative session by helping craft a responsible budget that makes life more affordable for working families and passing legislation that creates new consumer protection laws, particularly protecting against the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI).

“These past few months have been focused on addressing both familiar kitchen table issues and protecting our state from the harmful effects of the AI frontier,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “While our federal leadership stands by as costs skyrocket and technology evolves, my colleagues and I are committed to fighting for the families of our state.”

Gong-Gershowitz, worked to pass a budget that cuts the cost of government bureaucracy, gives local governments tools for property tax relief, fully funds community-based approaches to public safety and provides funding for social services amid federal cuts. 

In addition to her work in passing a balanced budget, Gong-Gershowitz was the lead sponsor of House Bill 5511 and, as chair of the House Democratic AI Working Group, guided all three of the following measures through the General Assembly:

•  House Bill 5511, which creates the Child Social Media Safety Act, banning the addictive algorithmic feeds that keep children glued to their screens. The measure passed the House with bipartisan support.

•  Senate Bill 318, which restricts automated bots from purchasing mass amounts of event tickets online, driving up costs for consumers. 

• Senate Bill 315, which mitigates catastrophic harms created by AI Frontier Models. Under this bipartisan legislation, AI firms would be subject to new reporting and disclosure requirements for potential safety incidents.

Gong-Gershowitz chairs the House Democratic AI Working Group, which was established by Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch earlier this year in order to launch a multifaceted approach to AI policy in Illinois.

The working group has been instrumental in building consensus around common-sense, consumer-focused protections that are technically sound and grounded in the real-world impacts on Illinois families.

“Protecting users from manipulative technology is not a partisan issue, and these pieces of legislation have proven that,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “Artificial intelligence and data-driven algorithms are no longer emerging technologies – they are already shaping nearly every aspect of our daily lives. As legislators, it is our responsibility to adapt our consumer protection laws now, before the harms outpace our ability to respond.”

All three measures have passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly and now head to the governor’s desk for consideration. 

CHICAGO – The House Democratic AI Working Group, chaired by state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, held a subject matter hearing on Monday, May 4, to discuss efforts to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) in order to protect consumers and safeguard elections in Illinois.

“These discussions are about protecting consumers and ensuring fairness in our state’s liability statutes,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “AI-powered technologies are no longer simply an emerging technology, they’re impacting almost every aspect of our lives right now.”

Four bills were discussed during the hearing, all pertaining to AI regulation and consumer protection.

Gong-Gershowitz’s House Bill 4557 would create the Digital Forgeries in Politics Act, which places new disclosure requirements on the use of digital manipulation in images, video and audio in political advertising. 

“When voters can no longer trust what they see and hear, democracy itself is at risk,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “AI-generated deepfakes of political candidates and elected officials are not a distant threat — they are already being weaponized to deceive the public, suppress participation and undermine elections. HB4557 draws a clear line: if you use artificial intelligence to fabricate the words or likeness of a political figure to deceive voters, there will be consequences. Illinoisans deserve to make their voices heard based on facts.”

House Bill 5044, also by Gong-Gershowitz, would create the Chatbot Provider Liability Act, defining chatbots as products and establishing that providers have a duty to ensure that the use of a chatbot does not cause injury to a user.

“We have always held manufacturers accountable when their products cause serious harm — and an AI chatbot is a product,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “When companies deploy these systems knowing they have the potential to deceive, manipulate or injure the people who interact with them, they should be held to exactly the same standard we apply to any other dangerous product under Illinois law,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “This legislation closes a loophole that Big Tech has been counting on. If your chatbot causes real harm, you bear real responsibility — full stop.”

State Rep. Daniel Didech’s House Bill 4705 would create the Artificial Intelligence Public Safety and Child Protection Transparency Act, requiring frontier AI developers and large chatbot providers to create a public safety and child protection plan.

“The pace of AI development and the capabilities of frontier models are accelerating, and the General Assembly has an obligation to ensure that Illinois residents are protected from catastrophic outcomes,” Didech said. “This legislation puts enforceable guardrails in place so Big Tech companies must prioritize safety, be transparent about the risks tied to their systems and take responsibility for preventing serious harm, especially when it comes to protecting children.”

State Rep. Maura Hirschauer’s House Bill 5756, would create the Algorithmic Pricing Transparency Act, requiring online retailers to disclose their use of “surveillance pricing”—a growing phenomena that uses artificial intelligence-powered tools to charge higher prices for certain customers based on a user’s personal data.

“House Bill 5756 prioritizes transparency and fairness,” Hirschauer said. “This legislation makes clear that pricing powered by personal data cannot happen in the shadows. By requiring disclosure, banning the use of sensitive information, and guaranteeing an opt-out, we are putting fairness and accountability back into the marketplace.”

The House Democratic AI Working Group was established by Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch earlier this year in order to launch a multifaceted approach to AI policy in Illinois.

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.”  

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Reflecting her yearslong effort in regulating artificial intelligence (AI) companies and products, state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, has been named chair of the House Democratic AI Working Group.

“Technology is accelerating at a breakneck speed,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “It’s important that we don’t let that acceleration leave our regulations in the dust. I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead continued discussions over how we can protect Illinoisans’ rights while ensuring the future is built in Illinois.”

Gong-Gershowitz previously passed the Digital Voice and Likeness Protection Act, a landmark bill which protects individuals from unauthorized reproductions of their voice or likeness via the use of AI, and the Digital Forgeries Act, which created a new cause of action against any person who creates or distributes a digitally altered sexual image, or deepfake, of an individual without their consent.

Gong-Gershowitz is currently pushing for additional protections against AI products, including:

• House Bill 5044, which would define chatbots as products and establish that providers have a duty to ensure that the use of a chatbot does not cause injury to a user. 

• House Bill 4557, which would create the Digital Forgeries in Politics Act, placing new disclosure requirements on the use of digital manipulation in images, video and audio in political advertising. 

“Artificial intelligence has the power to produce countless breakthroughs in a wide array of fields,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “But it also has the power to undermine fair elections and cause serious harm to individuals, and we need to rein in those damaging prospects.”

GLENVIEW, Ill. – In another successful step in the fight to secure universal access to legal representation, state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, passed a measure to ensure that changes to immigration policy don’t deprive Cook County residents of their existing access to legal counsel.

“Donald Trump continues to sidestep constitutionally mandated due process at every opportunity, threatening the rights of citizens and non-citizens alike,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “This law helps safeguard access to legal counsel in immigration hearings with the commonsense step of authorizing the Cook County Public Defender’s Office to represent all Cook County residents, regardless of where the hearings are held.”

Under existing law, the Public Defender may represent Cook County residents in Chicago’s immigration court. Working with the Public Defender’s Office, Gong-Gershowitz passed House Bill 2436 to ensure that Cook County residents are not denied access to counsel simply by virtue of where they are detained, preventing immigration officials from transferring cases to other jurisdictions in order to deny a person’s ability to be effectively represented by an attorney. All immigration court hearings take place virtually so this measure does not change or require anyone to travel inside or outside of Illinois.

The bill was signed into law last Friday.

 “Despite being a bedrock principle of our justice system, legal representation is not guaranteed for all defendants. People standing before an immigration court, even children without guardians present, have no right to an attorney at government expense,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “In the face of the Trump administration’s attacks on due process, it’s more important than ever to expand the right to legal representation, including in immigration court.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Building on her previous pro-environment successes, state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, passed a measure prohibiting restaurants from providing single-use plastic disposable food-ware unless requested by customers.

“The wasteful practice of routinely handing out unasked-for disposable food-ware to restaurant customers has just resulted in countless untouched plastic forks and overlooked single-use spoons in Illinois landfills, while imposing higher operating costs on Illinois restaurants,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “This bill will double down on our commitment to creating a more environmentally friendly future by prohibiting the use of disposable food-ware unless customers request it. It’s common for restaurants to do this with plastic straw dispensers, we’re just applying that practice to other food-ware.”

Gong-Gershowitz passed House Bill 1600 out of the House with the support of the Illinois Environmental Council and the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. This bill amends the Illinois Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to prohibit restaurants from providing single-use plastic disposable food-ware to customers unless specifically requested. The first violation results in a warning, subsequent violations result in $25 per day penalties.

“Illinois is making great progress creating responsible pro-environment policy and I have been proud to play a leading role in that effort in recent years,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “Lawmakers need to hold ourselves accountable to future generations and common-sense practices that preserve our environment are an essential piece of that promise to the next generation.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, issued the following response to Gov. Pritzker’s budget address on Wednesday:

“Today, Governor Pritzker outlined his budget proposal during this critical time for Illinois. My colleagues and I are hard at work reviewing the budget proposal in detail. We are committed to working with Governor Pritzker to craft a responsible budget that spends within our means while protecting the vital services that Illinois families rely on—especially in education and healthcare.

“Since 2018, disciplined financial management has helped Illinois strengthen its fiscal foundation, reduce debt, and secure multiple credit rating upgrades. This progress has allowed us to invest in our communities by ensuring every taxpayer dollar is used efficiently and thoughtfully. While we have made a great deal of improvement, there is still much to be done to right our fiscal ship.

“With this budget and every budget going forward, we must double down on our commitment to building on this hard-fought progress by continuing to make smart, often tough, financial decisions that prioritize stability and sustainable economic opportunity.

“A responsible budget must reflect both fiscal discipline and our core values. That means continuing to invest in high-quality education and healthcare to ensure that Illinois families – especially children and seniors – have access to the essential services they need. I look forward to working with my colleagues to craft a budget that protects these priorities while keeping Illinois on a path toward long-term financial security.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, and members of the House Democratic New Arrivals Working Group are seeking to curb inhumane, politically motivated busing of migrants from border states with new criminal and civil penalties for dropping off passengers at unsafe locations and at unscheduled times.

“This measure is the result of months of work by the New Arrivals Working Group in conjunction with stakeholders from across the political spectrum. This bill begins to address the most egregious abuses we’ve seen from politicians who want to ship people across the country like cargo,” Gong-Gershowitz said. “Unplanned, unannounced and uncoordinated long-distance busing of migrants is a practice that totally neglects their wellbeing, while imposing burdens on the communities receiving them. This issue affects us all.”

Gong-Gershowitz passed House Bill 588 through a House committee Wednesday. Under this bill, commercial bus operators would no longer be able to leave migrants in unsafe areas, or at unscheduled times. Buses would face stricter regulation of where riders could be left, ensuring local officials have control over where and when drop-offs could happen. The bill also lays out stronger safety regulations on these drop-off locations. Bus operators violating these regulations would be subject to misdemeanor charges and fines for a first offense, with escalating fines for subsequent offenses.

Many communities in Cook County and neighboring suburbs have already enacted similar ordinances, causing bus operators and the politicians directing them to seek unregulated areas for these drop-offs. Gong-Gershowitz’s bill expands these regulations statewide in order to more comprehensively crack down on these political games. 

Gong-Gershowitz, leads the House Democratic New Arrivals Working Group, along with Reps. Dagmara Avelar, Kam Buckner, Terra Costa Howard, Eva-Dina Delgado, Robyn Gabel, Jehan Gordon-Booth, Hoan Huynh, and Dave Vella.