A fundamental principle in the American legal system is the distinction between children and adults. Children cannot sign contracts, consent to medical treatment, or enter into binding agreements without parental involvement. Yet for some reason, when, in 10 or so years, we buy my 2-year-old a phone, he will have to consent to a dozen different terms of service and from there, he’ll be able to download every single app in the app store.
That is the reality families face right now. Kids agree to terms of service, consent to data collection, and access whatever apps they want, all while parents are kept entirely in the dark. In every other area of life, the law recognizes that minors need parental guidance. But online? That principle disappears. Congress can change this by passing the App Store Accountability Act.
Under the App Store Accountability Act, app stores would verify a user’s age at account creation and notify parents when a minor wants to download an app. Parents would review the request and decide whether to approve it. This framework simply invites parental oversight without banning content or restricting speech.
Unfortunately, a recent preliminary injunction against a similar state law in Texas (SB 2420) threatens to derail this long-delayed effort to put parents back in control of their teens’ online experience. Some commonsense exceptions embedded in the Texas law gave federal judge, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, the opportunity to stop the law from going into effect on First Amendment grounds, claiming the law discriminated based on types of content.
I think the court got it wrong. What the Texas law does is regulate a commercial transaction–downloading software–and requires parental consent for minors to complete it. We already require parental consent for tattoos, leases, and credit cards. This is the same principle applied to a new context.
It is also worth remembering that a preliminary injunction is not a final ruling. It is one judge’s early assessment, and the Texas Attorney General has already appealed to the Fifth Circuit. The Supreme Court also upheld age-verification requirements in a separate Texas case (Free Speech Coalition Inc. et al. v. Paxton, Attorney General of Texas).
This legal question is far from settled.
Critics point to this single preliminary ruling as if it should stop Congress from acting. This is frustrating because the same scrutiny is not being applied to alternative approaches. The Parents Over Platforms Act, another bill introduced in Congress, would require verification app by app instead of centralizing it at the app store. That model has been struck down repeatedly as courts have found it constitutionally problematic and a privacy nightmare—forcing families to scatter personal data across dozens of platforms. One preliminary injunction against a more sensible approach should not overshadow the sustained failure of the alternative.
The App Store Accountability Act consolidates verification in one place, minimizes data collection, and preserves parental authority. It reflects the same legal principles we apply everywhere else: children need protection, and parents are the ones who should provide it. Congress should pass this legislation and give American families the tools they need.
