Children’s Privacy Moves to the Federal Level

We’ve covered the efforts of Utah to update its privacy laws that protect children and now these updates may be coming at the federal level. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Representative John James of Michigan have introduced identical bills in the Senate and House, respectively, which also mirror Utah’s law, regarding age verification of children in app stores.  The App Store Accountability Apps requires that app stores verify children’s ages, and require parental consent for children, prior to allowing a download to a user’s mobile device.

The Act provides that app store providers shall “at the time an individual creates an account with the app store provider, request age information from the individual; and verify the individual’s age category using: (A) commercially available methods that are reasonably designed to ensure accuracy; or (B) an age verification method or process using a commercially available method or process that is reasonably designed to ensure accuracy.”  If the age verification reveals that the individual is a minor (an individual under the age of 18), then the app store must  “require the account to be affiliated with a parental account; and obtain verifiable parental consent from the holder of the affiliated parental account before allowing the minor to download or purchase an app or make an in-app purchase.”  Further, there are additional obligations placed on app store providers to provide notice to individuals and parents when certain, significant changes are made to apps.

This legislation further perpetuates the tension between parents, whom Senator Lee and Representative James say are widely behind this legislation, versus app stores.  One argument against adopting these laws that was raised by the app stores with respect to Utah’s law is that it is contrary to the principle of data minimization.  Specifically, the app stores argue that requiring age verification to be shared with app developers will result in an oversharing of unnecessary information. 

At this early stage, it does appear that the House and Senate bills have momentum in moving through the congressional process.  We will continue to monitor this proposed legislation.