This year, I’ve had a new experience as a father: parenting a teen who has their own phone. My wife and I were holdouts compared to many of our son’s friends’ parents, but when he reached sixteen, we knew it was unavoidable. Smartphones, for better or worse, are deeply integrated into our society, and we didn’t want to hold him back from the social and educational benefits that phones can provide youth.
Our hesitation was mainly born out of fear after hearing too many stories about teens being negatively impacted by online content or exploited by malicious strangers online. This is where my first job, father, intersects with my day job. It's important to empower parents - not bureaucrats - with better tools to keep their kids safe online.
At the start of this year, I wrote about actions taken at the state level to address this issue. Legislators in states like Utah and Florida sought to prioritize youth safety by strengthening protections for teens. However, the digital world does not recognize state borders, which means federal legislators must do their part to avoid a patchwork system that creates easy workarounds for tech-savvy teens.
One such proposal is to require app stores to secure parental approval before teens can download new apps. This approach could implement an important layer of security that enables parents to have better oversight over their child’s phone and block app downloads that are against the rules they’ve set for their teens.
Since I last wrote about this policy, there has been significant movement in Congress. Representative John James (R-MI-10th) recently proposed an app store amendment at an Energy and Commerce Committee markup on two proposed online safety bills, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0), and has stated plans to introduce stand-alone legislation when Congress is back in session next month.
In his testimony, Rep. James pointed out that Apple and Google’s app marketplaces already have the mechanisms to implement this policy, explaining that “Apple and Google's App Stores already set age-related content restrictions for [apps], filter online content, and control privacy settings.” He also pointed out that this is how age-gating works in most cases – the store is responsible for checking IDs and blocking access to underage teens. That’s why, Rep. James argues, “Going through Apple and Google would leverage tried and true policies to make the [app] store age-gate the addictive or harmful products.”
Rep. James is a junior member of the committee, which could’ve indicated an uphill battle for his legislation. However, chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA-5th) has voiced support for the bill and said the committee is backing Rep. James’ efforts. This is a hugely positive sign since the Energy and Commerce Committee is the major launching pad for tech-focused policies in the House.
This progress comes at a good time because another youth safety proposal is facing significant pushback from Speaker Mike Johnson. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) has raised serious concerns over a provision that would give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the power to determine what online content is ‘harmful’ to youth. This vague, sweeping provision opens the door to government censorship. Given Speaker Johnson’s comments that KOSA is ‘very problematic,’ this bill is not likely to get a vote on the House floor without major changes.
The app store proposal is not without its own critics, who believe that this policy does not ‘do enough’ to protect our youth and others who believe the government should simply enforce laws that already exist. We don’t disagree, but that does not mean it’s not an important idea to discuss.
This issue is larger than any one policy. Requiring parental approval in app stores may be the bipartisan solution that will go a long way to help parents like me, who fear not having proper oversight over what content their children are interacting with on their phones.