Congress is in the early stages of taking additional steps to protect children online. A federal bill is designed to “restore parental oversight, improve transparency, and hold app stores accountable for misleading families” by requiring app stores to verify the ages of users and regulate apps based on content restrictions.
“Our increasingly digital world continually presents new threats and challenges, especially to our children. Congress must continue to address risks facing the most vulnerable and take steps to help ensure they are not being exploited by bad actors online,” Representative Brett Guthrie and Representative Gus Bilirakis wrote.
On Wednesday, the Congressional Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held a hearing to continue examining the online dangers facing today’s children. Family Voice submitted a letter urging committee members to support protections such as the App Store Accountability Act.
“New apps find their way onto app stores every day. Many of them are developed in China and cannot be trusted with personal data. Many of them seem to be child-friendly, but contain explicit, violent, or harmful material. Many of them have chat features that adults exploit to connect with minors,” Family Voice’s letter reads. “We have let this get way out of control, and the App Store Accountability Act would help us rein this problem in by putting parents in the driver’s seat.”
A coalition of over 50 child advocacy organizations joined forces to create the Digital Childhood Alliance, a strong proponent of current and emerging App Store Accountability Acts. The group is urging lawmakers to “move swiftly to pass the bill and end the widespread exploitation of children by app stores.”
“The time for action is now,” device and online safety expert Melissa McKay asserted. “Nearly 90% of teens use an iPhone, yet Apple treats child safety as an afterthought. The company that sets the standard for innovation refuses to apply the same functional elegance to its protections for kids, burying ineffective tools under layers of menus while profiting from children’s easy access to predatory apps. Apple has the power to lead on child safety but chooses inaction, leaving children unprotected in a digital world designed to exploit them.”
The specifics of the bill, as described by the Digital Childhood Alliance, include:
- Parental Approval for App Downloads and Purchases: App stores are required to obtain verifiable parental consent before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases, protecting children from privacy risks, financial harm, and unenforceable contracts.
- Accurate and Transparent Age Ratings: App age ratings must reflect actual content and in-app experiences. Parents and state Attorneys General are empowered to take legal action against misrepresented app safety disclosures.
- Secure Age Verification: App stores must securely share verified age categories with apps, enabling developers to comply with laws like COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) and provide in-app experiences consistent with their stated age ratings, enhancing safety and simplifying compliance.
This bill is an important starting point that would help parents better regulate and monitor the content their children have access to, protecting millions of children nationwide.
“For years, app stores have turned a blind eye to child safety, allowing kids to download apps, enter into exploitative contracts they don’t understand, and share personal data—all without parental consent,” Dawn Hawkins, senior advisor to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said. “Lawmakers now have a clear path forward, backed by a coalition of experts who agree: The App Store Accountability Act is vital to creating a safer online environment for American youth.”
The App Store Accountability Act is a commonsense approach to keeping kids safe. Parents have been asking for it, and kids deserve it.
