SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah on Wednesday became the first state to pass legislation requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and get parental consent for minors to download apps to their devices.
The bill headed to the desk of Gov. Spencer Cox has pitted Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, against app store giants Apple and Google over who should be responsible for verifying ages. Similar bills have been introduced in at least 12 other states in the latest fight over children's online safety. The proposals targeting app stores follow legal fights over laws requiring social media platforms to verify the ages of users.
Meta and other social media companies support putting the onus on app stores to verify ages amid criticism that they don’t do enough to make their products safe for children — or verify that no kids under 13 use 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, X and Snap Inc. said in a joint statement Wednesday. "We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit.”
The app stores say app developers are better equipped to handle age verification and other safety measures. Requiring app stores to confirm ages will make it so all users have to hand over sensitive identifying information, such as a driver’s license, passport, credit card or Social Security number, even if they don't want to use an age-restricted app, Apple said.
“Because many kids in the U.S. don’t have government-issued IDs, parents in the U.S. will have to provide even more sensitive documentation just to allow their child to access apps meant for children. That’s not in the interest of user safety or privacy,” the company said in its most recent online safety report.
Apple considers age a matter of privacy and lets users to decide whether to disclose it. The company gives parents the option to set age-appropriate parameters for app downloads. The Google Play Store does the same.
Apple and Google are among a litany of tech companies that help support the Chamber of Progress, a tech policy group that lobbied Utah lawmakers to reject the bill. Last year, Apple helped kill a similar bill in Louisiana that would have required app stores to help enforce age restrictions.
Kouri Marshall, a spokesperson for the Chamber of Progress, called the measure “a tremendous encroachment of individual privacy” that he said places a heavy burden on app stores to ensure online safety.
Republican Sen. Todd Weiler, the bill’s sponsor, argued it's “a lot easier to target two app stores than it is to target 10,000 (app) developers.”
Under the bill, app stores would be required to request age information when someone creates an account. If a minor tries to open one, the bill directs the app store to link it to their parent’s account and may request a form of ID to confirm their identity. Weiler said a credit card could be used as an age verification tool in most cases.
If a child tries to download an app that allows in-app purchases or requires them to agree to terms and conditions, the parent will first have to approve.
Melissa McKay, a Utah mother, is among those who pushed for the legislation. She said she started asking questions about device safety after her nephew in 2017 was exposed to “really harmful content on another student’s device at school.” Inaccurate age ratings on apps and faulty parental controls are “at the root of online harm,” McKay said.
The 12 other states considering proposals would similarly place responsibility on app stores to verify ages and seek parental permissions. A legislative committee advanced Alabama's bill last week.
Lawsuits have delayed implementation of state laws regulating social media apps and websites. A federal judge in 2024 temporarily blocked Utah's first-in-the-nation law requiring social media companies to check the ages of all users and place restrictions on accounts belonging to minors.
If Cox signs the Utah bill into law, most provisions would take effect May 7. The governor's office did not respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday. Cox, a Republican, supported the state law currently on hold that requires age verification on social media.
Associated Press reporters Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, and Barbara Ortutay and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed reporting.
FILE - Apple's App Store icon is displayed on an iPad in Baltimore, March 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
