Pritzker plans to sign social media law despite criticisms

By Sean Reed | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois may now face one less potential hurdle enacting a law requiring social media and other online platforms to verify the age of users and restrict content harmful to minors.

The law passed through the state legislature unanimously, despite claims by social media industry giants that the law is unconstitutional.

The Illinois “Children’s Online Safety Act” was passed by the General Assembly at the end of May and now just awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature before the law would take effect.

Late last week, a similar law in Ohio was allowed to move forward after having been held up by a federal court’s injunction for more than two years, a break from decisions on similar laws in other states.

The injunction came after NetChoice, a leading tech industry trade association, sued to block the law in Ohio on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.

Patrick Hedger, a representative of NetChoice, made a similar argument to Illinois lawmakers in the final days of the legislative session in May – noting the law would likely invite similar legal scrutiny.

“[The bill] imposes precisely the kind of content and speaker-based interference that Moody [v. NetChoice] held requires meaningful First Amendment justification,” Hedger said. “NetChoice has secured injunctions against such censorious laws in Arkansas, Louisiana and Ohio. Implementing such measures in Illinois would likely meet the same fate and lead to costly legal challenges.”

On the Illinois law, Pritzker said Monday that, despite concerns presented by NetChoice about constitutionality, he plans to keep it moving forward.

“I’m always concerned to protect people’s freedom of speech, so let’s just say that, no question about it. I don’t see that problem with our Children’s Social Media Safety Act. I proposed that social media safety act, and so I intend to sign it,” Pritzker said.

The Illinois law differs from many of the other states that have attempted to implement online age-verification.

Instead of placing the requirement solely on the platform, a device manufacturer or operating system developer would instead be required to verify a user’s age as the device is set up, and provide a more simple age range of the user to a platform.

The difference, according to lawmakers, is intended to preserve the privacy of users by not allowing age-related data to leave the device beyond initial verification.

Amy Bos, the vice president of government affairs for NetChoice, previously told The Center Square that the law seeks to address something that should be the responsibility of parents.

“The gap really isn’t in the tools available. I think education and parental empowerment do work, unconstitutional mandates don’t,” Bos said. “Florida and Virginia really kind of led the way on this in their digital literacy tools in their teen online safety courses. And we’ve been promoting that. A privacy law also goes a very long way to robust privacy protections.”

The Illinois law indicates that methods of parental consent to restrict or allow content are defined by the federal “Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,” which leaves methods of verification up to the approval of the FTC.

In recent weeks, representatives from NetChoice have called on Pritzker to outright veto the legislation.

NetChoice did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment Monday.