WASHINGTON (TNND) — A pair of Republican lawmakers are pushing Congress to take up a bill that would require app stores to verify the ages of all its users and share the information with developers in a push to protect the nation’s youth online amid growing findings about the harms social media and other platforms have on their mental health.
The bill, being led by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. John James of Michigan, would require app stores like Google and Apple to verify the ages of all users, require parental approval for downloads and provide accurate age ratings for apps. Under the law, companies would also be prohibited from selling or sharing sensitive data collected under the proposal.
Lee’s home state of Utah passed a similar measure that will take effect next week. Implementing the bill on a national level would be a landmark change to the online marketplace and how app stores operate.
“For too long, Big Tech has profited from app stores through which children in America and across the world access violent and sexual material while risking contact from online predators,” Lee said in a statement. “Our legislation brings age verification and accountability to the source of the problem.”
It comes amid a nationwide reckoning on the effects of social media on the nation’s youth and mounting public pressure on Congress and major tech platforms to do something to address the problem. Despite broad bipartisan interest in creating guardrails or other standards to protect children online, Congress has failed to pass any significant reforms into law after years of high-profile hearings and vows to get bills to the president’s desk.
Who should brunt the responsibility for verifying ages has divided the tech industry. Social media companies have supported legislation putting the onus on app stores, while app stores have argued developers are better suited to handle the issue and raised privacy concerns.
Most of the attention on tech reform has been focused on social media companies for the problems posed to the nation’s youth with CEOs being brought to Capitol Hill on an annual basis to face a grilling from lawmakers who say they are not going far enough to protect kids on their platforms.
Mounting pressure from parents and Congress has spurred companies to take matters into their own hands even without a congressional mandate. Most social media platforms have parental controls available, allow parents to connect their accounts with their children’s and filter content based on age.
But those efforts have been deemed insufficient by lawmakers and parental groups amid mounting evidence that algorithms can quickly lead underage users to dangerous content and a lack of urgency to address the problems.
If the bill were to pass, it would theoretically make it easier for tech platforms to create safer environments for kids by addressing the issue at higher levels rather than forcing every individual developer to verify ages. The lawmakers argue app stores should be held to standards like brick-and-mortar stores to sell alcohol and tobacco.
“Kids cannot consent — and any company that exposes them to addictive or adult material should be held accountable. The App Store Accountability Act holds Big Tech companies to the same standard as local corner stores. It safeguards the next generation by empowering parents and ensures that when it comes to protecting children, no one is above the law,” James said in a statement.
But there are questions about the practicality of implementing age verification and concerns about data privacy. There are questions about how stores would verify the ages of underage users who do not have a government ID and then what would happen to the data it collects to comply with the bill.
“The part for them that’s tricky is the logistics of implementing it, and how do they maintain this database, how do they actually do the verification?” said Adam Peruta, an associate professor and director of Syracuse University’s Advanced Media Management program. “I think the lawmakers think they could just flip a switch and tomorrow they could have some sort of system in place, when in actuality, it’s probably years for them to figure it out and then create it and then launch it.”
Some groups have also opposed the legislation on concerns that collecting biometric information and storing it poses a risk to privacy. Congress has also not enacted federal data privacy standards, leaving states to implement a patchwork of laws for companies to operate around.
“Keeping young people safe online is a shared priority, but mandating identity and biometric collection to go online is not the path forward. Decisions about what content is suitable for teens are best made around the kitchen table. Leading companies provide parents who let their teens go online with better tools every day to decide what guardrails are right for their family,” Computer & Communications Industry Association president and CEO Matt Schruers said in a statement.
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