Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill Tuesday requiring app stores, such as those run by Apple and Google, to verify user ages amid a push to ramp up protections for children online. <\/p>\n
The Lone Star State is the second to pass a law putting the responsibility of age verification on app stores, following Utah\u2019s lead. The Texas law is set to go into effect Jan. 1. <\/p>\n
Apple has pushed back on the measure, emphasizing that it shares the \u201cgoal of strengthening kids\u2019 online safety\u201d but is concerned it \u201cthreatens the privacy of all users\u201d by requiring app stores to collect and keep sensitive personal information about users. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe there are better proposals that help keep kids safe without requiring millions of people to turn over their personal information,\u201d an Apple spokesperson said in a statement. <\/p>\n
The pushback reflects a wider debate over who bears responsibility for determining users\u2019 ages \u2014 apps themselves or app stores. <\/p>\n
Social media giants, like Meta, X and Snap, have voiced support for shifting the onus of age verification onto app stores, as the conversation comes to Washington. <\/p>\n
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. John James (R-Mich.) introduced a bill earlier this month that, much like the measure from Lee\u2019s home state, would require Apple\u2019s App Store and Google\u2019s Play Store to verify user ages.<\/p>\n
Meta is also part of a new lobbying group in Washington, the Coalition for Competitive Mobile Experience, pushing for app store age verification\u00a0and raising concerns about Apple\u2019s app store practices. They argue that app stores are best suited to handle the issue because they already have age data.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cParents want a one-stop shop to verify their child\u2019s age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way,\u201d Meta, X and Snap said in a joint statement following the Texas bill signing. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe app store is the best place for it, and more than one-third of US states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play,\u201d they added. \u201cWe applaud Texas for taking this important step and urge Congress to follow suit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was updated at 7:09 p.m.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill Tuesday requiring app stores, such as those run by Apple and Google, to verify user ages amid a push to ramp up protections for children online. The Lone Star State is the second to pass a law putting the responsibility of age verification on app stores, following Utah\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":367,"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calib.pw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}