Privacy News Illinois Just Told Every Operating System to Start Reporting Your Kid's Age

[lokamoka820]

Content source

https://itsfoss.com/news/illinois-age-verification-bill/

Illinois has become the latest U.S. state to pull operating systems into the age verification pool. Governor JB Pritzker has signed HB5511, the Children's Online Social Media Safety Act, putting forward a new age verification framework for every device sold or used in the state.

The bill imposes age check on "covered manufacturers," a category that lumps device makers, operating system providers, and app stores together.

Protect the children!​

By January 1, 2028, these manufacturers have to build an interface at account setup asking a parent or account holder for the child's birth date. That date is then converted into one of four age brackets: under 13, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, or 18 and up.

The law also stipulates that all transmitted digital signals have to be encrypted.

Applications can then pull that bracket through an API once a user downloads or launches them. Once they get a signal marking a user as a minor, they're legally treated as having "actual knowledge" of that.

Once flagged, apps have to turn on a set of safety settings. Feeds get restricted, profiles get hidden from adult strangers, messages from adults get blocked, precise location gets masked, and notifications go dark between 10 PM and 7 AM.

Parents can override these defaults for their kids, and minors over 16 can do it themselves too.

Apps have until July 1, 2028 to start requesting these signals, and violations can cost up to $50,000 each, enforced by the state Attorney General. Device manufacturers and apps acting in good faith aren't liable if a signal turns out wrong.

 

[Halp2001]

The intention of protecting children is valid, but these measures also raise questions about privacy and user control. By requiring the operating system to classify a user's age and share that information with apps and services, a new layer of personal data is introduced over which users may have limited control. Although the initial goal is child safety, this classification becomes part of a user's digital identity and could potentially be used beyond its original purpose.

The risk is not only in what the law does today, but also in the precedent it establishes. When operating systems become responsible for verifying and transmitting certain personal attributes, it is important to consider how these systems could evolve over time. Meanwhile, age verification alone does not eliminate all the risks it aims to address: some restrictions can be bypassed, while the classification system remains integrated into more platforms.

The challenge is finding a real balance between protection and privacy, creating tools that help users without unnecessarily limiting their control over their own personal data.

 

[RoboMan]

This is the first step towards citizen's censorship and web control.