According to recent reports, Apple and Google are actively asking state lawmakers across the country to pass specific versions of online safety laws for children. While publicly stating a commitment to protecting kids on the internet, the proposed legislation pushed by each firm contains key details that would significantly limit its legal risk. The primary goal of these efforts appears to be avoiding private lawsuits related to digital storefronts and content platforms.
How proposed enforcement rules shield tech companies from private lawsuits
Many states are currently working to pass laws that require a technology platform to verify user ages and restrict minors from seeing harmful content. The main conflict revolves around who gets to enforce these new rules. The App Store Accountability Act, which has already passed in states like Utah, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama, allows individual families to sue a company directly if it fails to properly verify user ages for downloads on the App Store and similar marketplaces.
However, the alternative bills pushed by Google and Apple would restrict enforcement solely to state attorneys general. Since attorneys general have limited resources and must carefully choose cases, this change would effectively eliminate the threat of massive private lawsuits. When similar age verification bills were debated this year in Arizona, Georgia, and Kansas, lobbyists successfully pushed for text that removed private enforcement options.
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
The tech industry is also asking for age verification methods that rely largely on users self-declaring a birthdate. This approach makes it easy for teenagers to simply enter a false date and bypass the check. In contrast, competing legislation requires more rigorous commercial verification tools. Interestingly, Meta currently supports the stricter laws because the legislation shifts the heavy burden of verifying a user’s age away from a social media platform and onto the app store itself.
As more local governments consider legislation to protect young users online, the battle over who pays the price when those protections fail will only intensify. The outcome of these state-level lobbying efforts will heavily influence how the industry manages age verification and legal accountability going forward.
Discussion