Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday signed in law a draft law requiring Google of Apple and the alphabet to verify the age of their application store users, placing the second most populous state at the center of a debate if and how to regulate the use of smartphones by children and adolescents.
The law, effective on January 1, requires parents’ consent to download applications or make purchases within the app for users under 18 years of age. Utah was the first state to adopt a similar law earlier this year, and lawmakers also introduced a federal bill.
Another -Texas law, approved in the Texas House of Representatives and waiting for a Senate vote, would limit social media applications for users over 18 years old.
Age boundaries and parental consent to social media applications are one of the few areas of the broad US consensus, with a Pew research survey in 2023 finding that 81% of Americans support parents’ consent to children to create social media accounts and 71% support age verifying before using social media.
The effect of social media on children’s mental health has become a growing global concern, with dozens of states suing Meta Platform and the US general surgeon issuing advice on child protection measures. Australia last year banned social media for children under 16, with other countries like Norway also taking into account new rules.
How to implement age restrictions has caused a conflict between Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, and Apple and Google, who own the two prevailing American app stores.
Meta Director General Mark Zuckerberg said last year during a hearing in the Senate that he believed parents should not “have to charge an ID or test that they are a parent in every single app they use their children. The easiest place to do is in app stores themselves.”
Meta refused to comment on this story.
Internet security groups of children supporting the draft law in Texas have long argued for verifying the App Store’s age, saying it is the only way to give parents effective control over the use of technology children.
“The problem is that self-regulation in the digital market has failed, where application stores have just given priority in profit on safety and rights of children and families,” Reuters Casey Stefanski, Executive Director of the Digital Childhood Alliance, told Reuters.
Apple and Google opposed the draft law in Texas, saying it imposes blanket requirements to exchange age data with all apps, even when those applications are uncontested.
“If approved, application market sites will be required to collect and maintain sensitive personal login information for any Texan that wants to download an app, even if it is an app that simply offers weather updates or sports results,” Apple said in a statement.
Google and Apple each have their own proposals involving age data sharing only with applications that require them than all apps.
“We see a role for legislation here,” said Kareem Ghanem, senior director of government affairs and public policy on Google for Reuters. “Once it has to be done properly, and should keep Zuckerberg’s feet and social media companies on fire because they are the damage to children and teens on those sites that really inspire people to make a closer look here and see how we can do better.”
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