App stores enter the age verification debate as social media points fingers

In the dialogue about how to effectively protect young people from accessing adult content online, social media companies take a lot of heat over the harm their products have been shown to cause, and have faced calls for age verification. But what about the platforms that provide the apps? In the digital supply chain, Apple, Google and other major tech players are the dealers who move and house the goods. Now, they are facing pressure from regulators to bear some of the responsibility by implementing age assurance measures.

South Dakota legislators push for app stores to perform age verification

Lawmakers in South Dakota have voted to ask the state Legislative Research Council to draft two “age gating” bills for presentation in 2025, according to an item in the South Dakota Searchlight.

No state has passed laws for app- or device-based age verification. But the Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Regulation of Internet Access by Minors wants companies that run app stores or manufacture mobile phones and tablets to be required to perform age assurance for users in the state.

The idea has supporters and detractors. Meta is among the former, likely glad to have some of the pressure on age verification directed away from them. “While Meta has a robust, multi-layered approach to determining one’s age, we are only one part of the online ecosystem,” says Nicole Lopez, who oversees youth safety policy for Meta. “The reality is kids are not only getting smartphones at increasingly younger ages, but they hop from app to app to app to app.”

Opponents argue that app store data on user age can be unreliable, and note relatively easy workarounds for anyone trying to subvert age gating. They agree that digital literacy should be a priority in advancing age verification strategies.

Apple and Meta face off in Louisiana over responsibility for age checks

Apple is firmly against the notion that it should do age verification for third-party apps. Heise reports that in Louisiana, the company was roped into the legal debate by Republican MP Kim Carver, who introduced an amendment to a child data protection bill after consulting with a lobbyist from Meta, which believes app stores are best positioned to provide a centralized age assurance system. In response, Apple held up its hands and stepped back, saying it wants nothing to do with Meta’s age verification problems; apps and websites, it says, are the ones who should be checking users’ ages.

In the end, Apple (and what the Wall Street Journal calls its “formidable lobbying machine”) won the staredown, and the amendment requiring app store operators to verify age was ultimately removed from the bill. But as governments in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere face pressure on age verification and protecting kids online, the social media platforms will surely be pleased to have found another party to share the blame.

Age verification for app stores popular with social media, Christian nationalists

An opinion piece in The Hill looks at the federal level, where the Senate has passed the Kids Online Safety Act, which “imposes a duty of care on social media companies, obliging them to design their products to be safe for children.”

The piece casts stones with zest, arguing that it is “critical to recognize that the platforms are not solely responsible for supplying their own dangerous commodities. Other Silicon Valley corporations are also profiting – beyond one’s wildest dreams – from being the distributors of these addictive products: namely, smartphone manufacturers and their app stores.”

The Just Say No to Smartphones tone should ring bells; two of the piece’s authors work for conservative think tanks that promote Christian family values, one of which, the Center for Renewing America, is owned by Russell Vought, a former Trump staffer who actively promotes Christian nationalism.

Regardless, they have written policy papers and gained leverage with lawmakers. “Recently, the ‘App Store Accountability Act’ was introduced in the House as an amendment by Rep. John James (R-Mich.),” they note. The act has four key components: “age verification, parental consent, transparency requirements and industry oversight,” considered essential to the task.

The proposed law would require app stores to provide a “clear and easily-identifiable means for understanding the age rating of every single app in the store, helping parents to be more cognizant of the potential risks of an app to their children when deciding whether to consent to its download.” The authors believe it would help “create a safer digital app environment for kids in which parents are effectively involved.”

Industry insiders have often commented that accurate and effective age verification is not technically complicated. Yet the legal limits, political considerations and onus of responsibility add up to a formidable tangle to consider on top of a process that, practically, takes mere seconds.

Article Topics

age verification  |  app stores  |  Apple  |  biometrics  |  children  |  digital identity  |  legislation  |  Meta  |  social media