Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HB3304

LRB104 06519 SPS 16555 b

104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2025 and 2026
HB3304

Introduced 2/18/2025, by Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

New Act

Creates the Digital Age Assurance Act. Provides that specified manufacturers shall take commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps to, upon activation of a device, determine or estimate the age of the device's primary user and provide websites, applications, application stores, and online services with a digital signal regarding the user's age. Sets forth requirements for any website, application, or online service that makes available mature content. Provides that a website, application, or online service with actual knowledge that a user is under 18 years of age shall, to the extent commercially reasonable and technically feasible, provide readily available features for parents or guardians to support a minor with respect to the minor's use of the website, application, or online service. Provides that specified manufacturers shall comply with the Act in a nondiscriminatory manner. Provides that the Attorney General may commence a civil action to enforce the provisions of the Act. Sets forth provisions concerning civil actions. Limits home rule. Effective January 1, 2026.

A BILL FOR

AN ACT concerning business.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Digital Age Assurance Act.

Section 5. Findings and purposes.

(1) Creating a barrier between minors and mature content and mature online experiences requires a solution that protects minors while also protecting privacy and safeguarding personal information.

(2) Current efforts to make online environments safer for children are ineffective.

(3) 95% of teens in the United States have access to smartphones.

(4) Teens in the United States with access to digital devices use an average of 40 different applications on those devices.

(5) 97% of teens in the United States are daily Internet users, and 46% of teens in the United States respond that they are online almost constantly.

(6) Individual application-based or website-based age assurance will not protect minors across this broad online ecosystem.

(7) The most effective and privacy-protective way of achieving age assurance is at the point of access, on devices themselves.

(8) Parents and guardians want more control over their minor children's device use and online experiences. The best way to empower parents and guardians is to create an industry-wide solution through which all online services are held to the same consistent standard.

Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:

"Application store" means a publicly available website, software application, or online service that distributes third-party platforms' software applications to a computer, a mobile device, or any other general-purpose computing device.

"Covered manufacturer" means a manufacturer of a device, an operating system for a device, or an application store.

"Device" means a device or a portion of a device that is designed for and capable of communicating across a computer network with other computers or devices for the purpose of transmitting, receiving, or storing data, including, but not limited to, a desktop, laptop, cellular telephone, tablet, or other device designed for and capable of communicating with or across a computer network and that is used for that purpose.

"Mature content" has the same meaning given to the term "sexually explicit conduct" as defined in 18 U.S.C. 2256(2)(A).

"Minor" means an individual under the age of 18.

"Operating system provider" means an entity that develops, distributes, or maintains, a device's operating system, and provides common services. "Operating system provider" includes, but is not limited to, the design, programming, and supply of operating systems for various devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and other digital equipment.

"Substantial portion" means more than one-third of the total material on a website, application, or online service.

Section 15. Age assurance required.

(a) A covered manufacturer shall take commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps to:

(1) upon the device's activation determine or estimate the age of the device's primary user;

(2) provide websites, applications, application stores, and online services with a digital signal regarding whether an individual is under the age of 13, at least 13 years of age and under 16 years of age, at least 16 years of age and under 18 years of age, or at least 18 years of age through a real-time application programming interface; and

(3) in the case of a covered manufacturer that is an application store, obtain parental or guardian consent before permitting an individual under 16 years of age to download an application from the application store and provide the parent or guardian with the option to connect the developer of the application with the approving parent or guardian for the purpose of facilitating parental supervision tools.

(b) For devices sold before the effective date of this Act, covered manufacturers shall ensure that the requirements under subsection (a) are included in its operating system and application store versions and updates by default after the effective date of this Act.

(c) Any website, application, or online service that makes available mature content shall:

(1) recognize and allow for the receipt of digital age signals as described in this Act;

(2) if a substantial portion of the total material on the website, application, or online service is mature content, it shall:

(A) block access to the website, application, or online service when a digital age signal is received indicating a user is under 18 years of age;

(B) provide a disclaimer to users or visitors that the website, application, or online service contains mature content; and

(C) label itself as restricted to adults; and

(3) if less than a substantial portion of the total material on the website, application, or online is mature content:

(A) block access to known mature content when a digital age signal is received indicating a user is under 18 years of age; and

(B) provide a disclaimer to users or visitors before displaying known mature content.

(d) A website, application, or online service that, through receipt of a digital age signal or otherwise attains actual knowledge that a user is under 18 years of age shall, to the extent commercially reasonable and technically feasible, provide readily available features for parents or guardians to support a minor with respect to the minor's use of the website, application, or online service, including features to help manage which individuals or accounts are affirmatively linked to the minor, to help manage the delivery of age-appropriate content, and to limit the amount of time that the minor spends daily on the website, application, or online service.

(e) A covered manufacturer shall comply with this Act in a nondiscriminatory manner by, among other things:

(1) imposing at least the same restrictions and obligations on its own websites, applications, and online services as it does on those from third parties; and

(2) not using data collected from third parties, or consent mechanisms deployed for third parties, in the course of compliance with this Act, to compete against those third parties, to give the covered manufacturer's services preference relative to those of third parties, or to otherwise use the data or consent mechanism in an anti-competitive manner.

(f) The Attorney General may adopt rules as may be necessary to establish the processes by which entities are to comply with the provisions of this Section.

Section 20. Enforcement.

(a) The Attorney General may commence a civil action to enforce the provisions of this Act.

(b) Before initiating an action under this Act, the Attorney General shall provide an entity with written notice identifying the specific provisions of this Act the Attorney General alleges the entity has violated. If the entity cures those violations within 45 days of receipt of the written notice and provides the Attorney General with a written statement that the alleged violations have been cured, no further action shall be initiated against the entity.

(c) If an entity continues to violate this Act after receiving the written notice from the Attorney General or fails to respond to the written statement as described in subsection (b), the Attorney General may initiate a civil action and seek damages for up to $10,000 per violation of this Act. The damages shall begin accruing 45 days after the receipt of the written notice from the Attorney General.

(d) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as providing the basis for, or be subject to, a private right of action.

(e) A covered manufacturer shall not be subject to liability for failure to comply with this Act if that covered manufacturer has taken commercially reasonable and technically feasible steps to determine or estimate the age of the device's user as required in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of Section 15.

Section 25. Uniformity of interpretation. This Act shall be construed and interpreted to effectuate its general purpose and to make uniform the law in those states that enact similar statutes.

Section 30. Conflict of law. The provisions of this Act shall be construed to take precedence over any conflict of law in accordance with the Statute on Statutes

Section 35. Home rule. A home rule unit may not regulate the activities described in Section 15 in a manner more restrictive than the regulation by the State of those activities under this Act. This Section is a limitation under subsection (i) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution on the concurrent exercise by home rule units of powers and functions exercised by the State

Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect January 1, 2026.