Utah Governor Signs First-of-its-Kind Online Child Safety Law

In an effort to protect children online, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a bill requiring app stores to obtain age verification and parental consent.

The App Store Accountability Act S.B. 142, signed Wednesday, March 26, is a nation’s first and sets the tone for other states who may follow suit.

Newly signed in Utah, the App Store Accountability Act places the responsibility for verifying a user’s age on app stores, namely Apple and Google, to ensure users are age-appropriate or have parental consent. Furthermore, the bill classifies users by age into four different groups: child (under 13 years old), younger teenager (13-15), older teenager (16-17), and adult (18+). With this bill, the responsibility of obtaining this user information, verifying it, safeguarding the data, and then applying age-based restrictions and safety features now falls on the app stores rather than individual apps.

As previously reported by PetaPixel, government committees at both the state and federal level have previously met regarding online safety for children. Ongoing federal efforts include the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA), which prohibits children under 13 from creating or maintaining a social media account. In July 2024 the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) passed at the Senate level.

Meta’s Communication Director, Andy Stone, posted a joint statement from Meta, Snap, and X applauding the bill’s approval while urging other states to consider doing so as well.

As reported by CNBC, policies protecting children on apps has long been a feud between Facebook parent company Meta and Apple.

“Meta, which supported the bill, argues that app stores are the best place to do age verification on minors, instead of on individual apps. Meta has recently shifted its policy strategy to seek strategic advantages for itself and shift antitrust scrutiny onto Apple,” CNBC reported last month. “Apple says it makes the most sense for apps themselves to do age verification, and that due to privacy reasons, it doesn’t want to collect the data needed for age verification.”

Google argues that Utah’s bill raises privacy and safety risks, Google said earlier this month.

“There are a variety of fast-moving legislative proposals being pushed by Meta and other companies in an effort to offload their own responsibilities to keep kids safe to app stores,” Google Director of Public Policy Kareem Ghanem wrote. “These proposals introduce new risks to the privacy of minors, without actually addressing the harms that are inspiring lawmakers to act.”

Despite the squabble between app stores and developers over responsibility, Utah’s stance reflects an attempt to cut off the threat to minors online at its source.

Image credits: Lead image courtesy of the Utah Office of the Governor Spencer J. Cox.