Protecting children and teenagers online is a universally shared goal, and ensuring they engage with content suitable for their age is crucial. However, the approach to achieving this goal matters significantly. Various legislative proposals, including those pushed by Meta and other companies, aim to shift the responsibility of keeping kids safe from themselves to app stores. These proposals introduce new risks to minors’ privacy without effectively addressing the harms that are driving lawmakers to take action. In contrast, Google proposes a more comprehensive legislative framework that distributes responsibility between app stores and developers, safeguarding children’s privacy and respecting parents’ decision-making rights.

Shortcomings of Current Legislative Proposals

A notable example of concerning legislation is the Utah App Store Accountability Act. This bill mandates that app stores share a user’s age with all app developers, potentially exposing millions of minors to privacy and safety risks, as this information could be sold or used for malicious purposes without parental consent or guidelines on data usage. Such extensive data sharing is unnecessary; for instance, a weather app does not require knowledge of the user’s age, whereas a social media platform needs to make informed decisions about age-appropriate content and features. The bill, as written, allows social media companies to avoid their responsibilities, despite apps being just one of the many ways children access these platforms. Furthermore, requiring parental consent for every app download could dictate how parents supervise their children and potentially deprive teens of access to beneficial digital services, such as educational or navigation apps.

This level of data sharing and regulation isn’t needed for all types of apps and could lead to unnecessary restrictions on teens’ access to online services. A more nuanced approach would ensure that app developers only receive necessary age-related information to provide a safe and appropriate experience for their users.

A Legislative Framework for Better Protection of Kids

In contrast to current proposals, Google focuses on solutions that require appropriate user consent and minimize data exposure. Our legislative framework, which will be shared with lawmakers, involves app stores providing industry-standard age assurances securely to developers who genuinely need them, with the assurance that the information is used responsibly. Key aspects of this framework include:

• Consent-Based Age Signal Sharing: Unlike some legislation, such as the Utah bill, which requires app stores to send age information to all developers without permission, our proposal ensures that age signals are shared only with consent and only with developers who create apps that may pose risks to minors. This approach reduces the risk of sensitive information being shared broadly by limiting the data shared to the minimum necessary for providing an age signal.
• Appropriate Safety Measures Within Apps: Our proposal places the responsibility on developers to apply appropriate safety and privacy protections once they receive an age signal indicating the user might be a minor. This could include filtering out certain content, introducing reminders to take breaks, or offering different privacy settings. Since developers are best positioned to understand their apps, they can determine when an age gate is beneficial, allowing for a more adaptable approach to protecting minors.
• Responsible Use of Age Signals: Some legislative proposals lack safeguards against developers misusing age signals, thereby creating new child safety risks. Our framework ensures that age signals are used responsibly, with clear consequences for developers who violate users’ trust, such as improper access or sharing of age signals.
• No Personalized Ads for Minors: In addition to our age assurance proposal, we support banning personalized advertisements targeting users under 18 as an industry standard, a practice Google has long adhered to. It’s essential for other companies to adopt this practice to protect minors from targeted advertising.
• Centralized Parental Controls: Recognizing the challenges parents face in managing parental controls across different apps, our proposal includes a centralized dashboard for parents to oversee their children’s online activities across apps and allows developers to integrate with this system easily.

Google has demonstrated its commitment to keeping kids safe online through various built-in protections. We are prepared to enhance this work and will continue engaging with lawmakers and developers to advance our legislative framework for age assurance.