Utah passes age assurance bill requiring app stores to do age checks

Utah’s state legislature has passed S.B. 142, the App Store Accountability Act, which requires app stores to impose age assurance measures on app downloads.

Per the new law, app store providers shall, “at the time an individual who is located in the state creates an account with the app store provider, request age information from the individual; and verify the individual’s age category using: (A) commercially available methods that are reasonably designed to ensure accuracy; or (B) an age verification method or process that complies with rules made by the division under Section 13-75-301.” (Those rules are yet to come.)

Under Utah’s law, if app stores’ age assurance measures determine that a user trying to download an app or make an in-app purchase is underage, they will require the account to be affiliated with a parent account so verifiable parental consent can be confirmed or denied.

Developers will rely on app stores’ data sharing of age assurance results, and will not be liable provided they “relied in good faith on personal age verification data provided by an app store provider.”

Pressure from Meta could force app stores to develop solutions, workarounds

The law is a notable win for Meta, which has thrown its weight behind the argument that app stores – and not social media platforms – are the best point at which to impose age checks. For the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, it means that in Utah, age assurance is not its problem. Instead, the effort and costs will fall to Apple and Google, who operate the two major app stores.

Meta has repeatedly made the case that age assurance at the app level is “cumbersome and repetitive” and that “the most sensible and effective place for age verification is at the OS/app store level.” It has been joined by Snap, which owns Snapchat, in its quest to push for app store age verification.

While Utah’s law does specifically allow for commercially available age assurance methods that are “reasonably designed to ensure accuracy,” the law has mixed implications for the age assurance sector. The need for age verification and age estimation remains.

But, as major tech ecosystems, both Apple and Google are more likely to develop their own solutions to the age gate issue. Apple has already rolled out the Declared Age Range API, which gives kids the ability to share their confirmed age range with developers, but only with the approval of their parents, so that as little personal information as possible is collected.

While the Age Verification Provider’s Association (AVPA) has called the Declared Age Range API “a welcome move from Apple to improve the mechanics of the parental controls they offer for their app store,” some members have doubts that any kind of parental attestation will ever be considered “highly effective” as an age assurance method.

Nonetheless, Apple has been clear in stating that it believes age assurance is best done on the app or platform level. And the age range API, while providing a layer of protection on the app level, is also a crafty way of punting the problem back into the court of sites that offer age-restricted content, like pornography; why, Apple asks, should every app be subject to age checks when it’s the hardcore MILF sites and their ilk that need it most?

The result could be a general win for Big Tech at the expense of Big Porn – and could still translate to wins for age assurance providers that can demonstrate the commitment to privacy and discretion customers on the porn side will be looking for.

Article Topics

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