Lawmakers on the final day of the General Assembly passed a bill to regulate how minors interact with social media and other online platforms to make them less addictive.
The Children’s Online Social Media Safety Act is designed to prevent children under the age of 18 from being exposed to harmful content and addictive features by requiring social media companies to confirm a user’s age through the device’s operating system.
The bill doesn’t prevent children from downloading or using social media apps.
During device set-up, parents would set the child’s age, which would adjust certain design features in apps such as algorithmic feeds, the visibility of the child’s profile and what media can be shown to them.
Governor JB Pritzker proposed the bill during his February budget address.
