Utah passed a bill on Wednesday that will require app stores to verify users’ ages and receive parental consent for minors to download applications, making the Beehive State the first in the country to pass such a measure.
The bill, titled the App Store Accountability Act, now heads to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R)’s desk. If signed, the majority of the bill’s stipulations would take effect May 7.
“I am pleased that the majority of my colleagues in the #utleg voted to protect children from accepting sometimes predatory terms and conditions when downloading apps that may collect and sell their personal data,” Utah Sen. Todd Weiler (R), the bill’s sponsor, wrote on the social platform X Wednesday night. “We shouldn’t encourage children to enter into contracts. #utpol.”
The bill’s passage comes amid a wider debate between major technology firms over whether it is up to the app stores or the application developers to verify users’ ages. At least eight other states are weighing similar measures.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and social media apps X and Snap believe the onus to verify kids’ ages is on the app stores following criticism that technology devices and social media networks are causing harm to minors.
“Meta, X, and Snap agree! 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,” Antigone Davis, Meta’s vice president of global safety, wrote on X following the bill’s passage.
“The app store is the best place for it, and more than a quarter of states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play. We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit,” she added.
Apple and Google, which host two of the market’s largest app stores, lobbied against the Utah bill, arguing age verification presents risks to the privacy of minors and their parents or guardians. The two companies have argued developers are a better fit to handle age verification.
Just last week, Apple introduced what it called “age assurance” technology that will allow parents to be able to select the age range of their kids instead of providing their exact birthdates when setting up child accounts.
This is done before young users download apps from third-party developers, who will soon be able to use a “Declared Age Range API” that gives them access to this range. Apple described the API as a “narrowly-tailored, data-minimizing, privacy-protecting tool.”
The technology company argues a requirement to verify age on the actual app marketplace would make all users hand over sensitive information, when only a limited number of apps need such specific information about users.
“That means giving us data like a driver’s license, passport, or national identification number (such as a Social Security number), even if we don’t need it,” the company said in its online safety report last year.
A federal judge in 2024 put a temporary block on a Utah law that would have required social media companies to check the ages of all users and implement restrictions on accounts of minors, The Associated Press reported.
