As a mother, protecting my family is my first priority. Like millions of parents, I want children to explore, learn, and connect online without being exposed to spaces designed for adults. I also want their personal information protected. Our children’s identities and digital footprints should not be packaged and sold to the highest bidder simply because technology companies refuse to build a proper gatehouse at the app store entrance.
Washington can and should pursue both goals together. That starts with a clear federal standard for age verification at the app store level.
The stakes are real. In March, reports surfaced that a man in Doral, Florida, faced charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor after allegedly meeting the teenager through Sniffies, a platform designed to connect adults for in-person encounters. Like any parent, I was horrified that an online interaction allegedly led to real-world abuse.
Meanwhile, these businesses are attracting significant investment. Match Group announced a $100 million investment in Sniffies in April. As the industry grows, so should expectations that companies invest in protecting users and keeping children out of adult spaces.
No single policy will eliminate every online risk, and app store requirements alone cannot address access to browser-based services. But state-level legislative initiatives have already proven that a fragmented patchwork of conflicting regulations only creates compliance confusion for platforms and highly uneven digital protections for families across different regions. That’s why Congress should take a practical step by establishing safeguards where families download apps.
The approach should be straightforward: app stores verify users’ ages and manage parental consent. By establishing a unified national gateway baseline through centralized app store enforcement lawmakers can ensure apps receive only the limited age-category and consent information needed to apply appropriate safeguards. Adult-only apps should be able to rely on app stores to prevent underage downloads, while parents should have a clear way to approve the apps their children use.
Putting responsibility for age verification at the app store level would also provide stronger privacy protections. Families should not have to hand sensitive personal information to each individual app or navigate a different verification process every time their child wants to download one. Leaving safety mandates up to individual applications would also place an unfair burden on parents to research every single terms-of-service agreement, rather than providing them with a secure, singular clearinghouse that handles age confirmation reliably and transparently.
For mothers like me to trust this system, app stores should collect only the information necessary to verify age, keep it secure, and retain it only as long as needed. Apps should receive limited information about age and consent without gaining access to the underlying identity documents. Information collected to protect children should never become another source of advertising data.
In short, a consistent federal framework would balance commercial innovation with basic civic responsibility, giving modern households a fighting chance to protect their private spaces. It would also give families and businesses a clearer set of expectations.
When I look at the App Store Accountability Act (H.R. 3149), I do not just see a piece of legislation. I see a common-sense shield for parents. Its committee-amended text does exactly what moms like me have been begging for by placing age-verification responsibilities on app store providers, requiring parental consent for minors’ downloads and purchases, and limiting the collection and retention of verification information. These are foundations that lawmakers can build upon.
In my work on issues affecting vulnerable households, I have always returned to a simple principle: policy should help families. As a mother, I realize that the most vulnerable space of all right now may be the smartphone in our children’s hands. Parents have an essential role in guiding their children’s online lives, and technology companies should give them practical tools to do that.
Congress should now turn these principles into law by passing the App Store Accountability Act. Protecting children and protecting their privacy should be part of the same commitment.