Illinois Cyberbullying Laws: Penalties, Deepfakes, and School Duties

Illinois cyberbullying laws operate on two tracks. Public schools, charter schools, and qualifying nonpublic schools must investigate and discipline electronic bullying under 105 ILCS 5/22-110, and the same conduct can be prosecuted as a crime under the state’s electronic harassment and cyberstalking statutes. Penalties range from a Class B misdemeanor for a first offense of harassing electronic communication to a Class 4 felony when an adult targets a child. Parents of a student who cyberbullies can also face civil liability under a separate statute.

How Illinois Defines Cyberbullying

Under 105 ILCS 5/22-110, cyberbullying is bullying carried out through any electronic communication — social media, text messages, email, instant messages, or websites.¹ The conduct has to be severe or pervasive enough that it has, or could reasonably be predicted to have, at least one of these effects on the target:

Reasonable fear for the student’s safety or property.
A substantially harmful effect on physical or mental health.
Substantial disruption of academic performance.
Substantial interference with the student’s ability to benefit from school activities or services.

The definition also captures online impersonation, such as a fake social media profile pretending to be another student, when the impersonation produces any of those effects. Mass distribution of harmful content and public posting fall under the same definition.²

The statute names protected characteristics that get particular attention: actual or perceived race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, physical appearance, socioeconomic status, academic status, homelessness, and military status.¹

AI Deepfakes Starting in 2026–2027

Beginning with the 2026–2027 school year, the cyberbullying definition expands to include “unauthorized digital replicas” distributed electronically. If someone uses AI tools to create a fake image, video, or audio recording of a student and distributes it in a way that causes any of the bullying effects listed above, that conduct falls within the statute.¹

What Illinois Schools Must Do

Every public school district, charter school, and nonpublic nonsectarian elementary or secondary school in Illinois has to create, maintain, and enforce a written bullying prevention policy that meets the statute’s requirements, and file it with the Illinois State Board of Education.³ Each policy must include the statutory definition, clear reporting procedures (including anonymous reporting), an investigation process, available disciplinary and support responses, and a ban on retaliation against anyone who reports in good faith.¹

Parent Notification Within 24 Hours

Schools must notify the parents or guardians of every student involved in an alleged bullying incident within 24 hours of the administration learning about it. The statute requires “diligent efforts” to reach parents using all available contact information within that window, and the notification has to include information about counseling, school psychological services, and other support.¹ Individual incidents, and any threats of self-harm the school determines resulted from bullying, must also be reported to the affected parents. Parents have the right to meet with the administrator handling the investigation to discuss findings.

Off-Campus Conduct

Schools can discipline cyberbullying that happens off campus if it substantially disrupts the school environment or interferes with another student’s rights. Discipline can include detention, in-school or out-of-school suspension, and expulsion in severe cases, along with restorative measures like counseling, peer mediation, and behavioral intervention. The statute contains a First Amendment carve-out clarifying that nothing in the law is meant to restrict free expression or religious exercise protected under the U.S. or Illinois constitutions.²

Criminal Penalties for Electronic Harassment

Cyberbullying becomes a crime under Illinois’s harassment through electronic communications statute, 720 ILCS 5/26.5-3. The law prohibits using electronic communication to send obscene messages meant to offend, threaten injury to a person or their property, deliberately flood someone’s device to prevent its use, or harass a child under 13 when the sender is at least 16.⁴

First offense — Class B misdemeanor. Up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1,500.⁵⁶
Second or subsequent offense — Class A misdemeanor. Up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $2,500, and a mandatory minimum of 14 days in jail or 240 hours of community service.⁵⁷
Class 4 felony. One to three years in prison when aggravating factors are present.⁸

The felony upgrade applies when the offender is 18 or older and the victim is under 18, when the offender threatened to kill the victim or a family member, when the offender has three or more prior harassment convictions in the past decade, or when the offender previously harassed the same victim.⁵ The adult-targeting-minor trigger matters in cyberbullying situations where an adult sends threats or harassing messages to a student.

When Cyberbullying Becomes Cyberstalking

A sustained pattern of threatening or fear-inducing electronic conduct can be charged as cyberstalking under 720 ILCS 5/12-7.5. A person commits cyberstalking by using electronic communication in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that they know or should know would place a reasonable person in fear for their safety or cause emotional distress.⁹ The statute also reaches installing spyware to harass someone and creating a website that harasses a specific person for at least 24 hours.

Cyberstalking is a Class 4 felony on the first conviction, carrying one to three years in prison.⁸ A second or later conviction is a Class 3 felony, punishable by two to five years.¹⁰

If the conduct crosses state lines through social media or messaging platforms, federal law may also apply. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2261A, using any interactive computer service to engage in a course of conduct that places someone in reasonable fear of serious bodily injury or causes substantial emotional distress is a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison.¹¹

Limits on School Discipline for Off-Campus Speech

The U.S. Supreme Court addressed schools’ authority over off-campus student speech in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021), holding that the First Amendment limits, but does not entirely prohibit, school regulation of speech that originates off campus.¹² The Court gave three reasons for the reduced deference: off-campus expression is normally a parental matter, regulating both on- and off-campus speech could silence a student entirely, and public schools have an interest in protecting even unpopular expression.

The Court explicitly kept “serious or severe bullying or harassment targeting particular individuals” and “threats aimed at teachers or other students” within school authority, even when the speech starts off campus.¹² The Illinois statute lines up with that boundary by reaching off-campus conduct that produces any of the four bullying effects on the target.

Parental Financial Liability

Parents in Illinois can face civil liability for a child’s cyberbullying under the Parental Responsibility Act, 740 ILCS 115. When an unemancipated minor between 11 and 18 commits willful or malicious acts that cause injury to a person or property, the parent or legal guardian who lives with that child is liable for actual damages up to $20,000 for a first incident. If the child shows a pattern of willful or malicious behavior, the cap increases to $30,000 for subsequent incidents. Courts may also award reasonable attorney’s fees to the plaintiff.¹³

The caps only cover certain actual damages, and in personal injury cases they are limited to medical, dental, and hospital expenses. The statute is separate from any school discipline the child faces and from any criminal charges brought against the child or an adult offender.

Federal Civil Rights Overlay

When cyberbullying targets a student because of a protected characteristic, federal civil rights laws add obligations on top of the state statute. Under Title IX, any school that receives federal funding must respond promptly to sex-based harassment, including harassment carried out through digital platforms. Schools that fail to respond effectively risk losing federal funding.

For students with disabilities, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act require schools to address bullying that interferes with a disabled student’s ability to access educational services. Uncorrected cyberbullying that prevents a student with a disability from participating in or benefiting from school programs may violate the school’s obligation to provide a free appropriate public education.¹⁴ This applies whether or not the student qualifies under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as long as they are entitled to services under Section 504.

Reporting a Cyberbullying Incident

Illinois schools must offer clear reporting channels, including anonymous reporting, and designate staff trained to investigate promptly.³ The statute prohibits retaliation against anyone who reports in good faith. Document harmful messages and posts with screenshots before they disappear; both school discipline and criminal cases usually turn on a pattern of behavior, and records establish that pattern.

Contact law enforcement when the conduct includes threats of physical harm, when the sender is an adult targeting a minor, or when the behavior fits the cyberstalking definition. Those situations are what the criminal statutes exist for, and school-level intervention is not a substitute.

1
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 105 ILCS 5/22-110
2
Illinois State Board of Education. Bullying Prevention Policy Requirements and Guidance
3
Illinois State Board of Education. Illinois State Board of Education – Bullying Prevention
4
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 720 ILCS 5/26.5-3
5
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 720 ILCS 5/26.5-5
6
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-60
7
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-55
8
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-45
9
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 720 ILCS 5/12-7.5 – Cyberstalking
10
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 730 ILCS 5/5-4.5-40
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 2261A – Stalking
12
Supreme Court of the United States. Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., No. 20-255
13
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 740 ILCS 115 – Parental Responsibility Act
14
U.S. Department of Education. Disability Discrimination – Bullying and Harassment