Bill Text: IL SB2037 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: 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.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-06 - Referred to Assignments [SB2037 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-SB2037-Introduced.html

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104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY State of Illinois 2025 and 2026 SB2037 Introduced 2/6/2025, by Sen. Celina Villanueva 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.
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A BILL FOR
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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.

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(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).

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"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

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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:

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(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

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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.

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(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.

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