Utah has become the first state within the United States to pass legislation that requires app stores to verify the ages of users and get parental consent when minors download applications on their devices, as per a report by the Associated Press.
Utah’s App Store Accountability Bill is the latest piece of legislation in the US that aims to ensure children’s online safety. Notably, at least 12 other states across the US and the federal legislature have attempted to bring in numerous age-gating prerequisites to safeguard minors from online harm.
As per the bill, app stores should request age information when someone creates an account. If a minor tries to open one, the app store must link it to their parent’s account and may request identification.
Social media platforms vs App stores in the US
This latest development pits Meta, which owns social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, against app store behemoths Apple and Google over who should be held accountable for verifying the ages of minor users.
Meta and other social media companies believe that the onus of minors’ age verification should fall on app stores. This comes amid criticism that social media platforms are not doing enough to make their products safe for children and ensuring that children under 13 years of age don’t access them.
“Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child’s age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way. The app store is the best place for it,” Meta, Snap Inc. and X said in a joint statement.
“We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit,” they added.
However, app stores maintain that app developers are much better placed to look after age verification and related safety measures. For instance, Apple reportedly lobbied against a bill in the US state of Louisiana that would have required the tech giant to help in enforcing age-based restrictions.
Moreover, mandating app stores to confirm ages will make it compulsory for all users to hand over sensitive identity documents, such as one’s driver’s license, passport, credit card, or social security number, even if one does not want to use an age-restricted application.
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Why It Matters?
Kouri Marshall, a spokesperson for tech policy group Chamber of Progress, called the move “a tremendous encroachment of individual privacy” that places an unreasonably heavy burden on app stores to ensure online safety. Notably, Google and Apple are among an array of tech companies that support the tech policy group.
Elsewhere, Chamber of Progress legal advocacy counsel Kerry Maeve Sheehan wrote in a blog post: “The [US] Supreme Court has long recognized that age verification requirements, like those in SB 142, chill access to protected speech for everyone and are therefore inconsistent with the First Amendment [of the US Constitution].”
Something worth noting is that the US isn’t just targeting social media platforms or app stores exclusively when it comes to ensuring children’s safety. Last month the US state of California introduced a bill that mandates AI companies to periodically remind minor users that AI chatbots they interact with are not human beings.
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