Sponsors (3)
The bill increases parental control and privacy protections for minors through standardized age verification and consent, at the cost of higher compliance and operational burdens for developers and app stores, greater platform gatekeeping, some access friction for teens, and increased litigation and administrative complexity.
Parents and guardians gain clear, verifiable control over minors' app downloads and purchases because platforms must require verifiable parental consent and display plain-language consent disclosures.
Children and teens have stronger privacy and safety protections because the bill requires age verification, limits sharing of minors' age-category and personal data, and aligns definitions with COPPA-style protections.
Consumers (especially parents) get clearer information about app suitability because app stores and developers must use consistent, prominent plain-language age ratings and concise content/data practice descriptions.
Small app developers and covered app store providers will face substantial new compliance costs because they must implement age signals, parental account systems, verifiable consent flows, encryption/verification infrastructure, and annual certification procedures.
Minors and some young adults risk delayed or denied access to apps (including educational or safety services) because parental-consent systems and verification flows can create friction or exclude teens without parental accounts.
Sharing age-category and consent status with developers or requiring parental accounts could create new privacy risks if signals are reused, re-identified, or parental verification requires collecting sensitive data.
Based on analysis of 20 sections of legislative text.
Requires large U.S. app stores and developers to verify user age, obtain verifiable parental consent for minors, share limited age/consent signals, and makes the FTC the primary enforcer.
Introduced May 1, 2025 by John James · Last progress May 1, 2025
Requires large U.S. app stores and app developers to verify users’ age, to require verified parental accounts and verifiable parental consent before allowing minors to download, purchase, or make in-app purchases, and to share only limited age/consent signals with developers. It sets data-minimization and security rules for age verification, establishes FTC guidance, a certification program for app stores, civil enforcement by the FTC and state attorneys general, a safe harbor for good-faith developer reliance on app-store age signals, and preempts state laws that conflict with the Act. The Act generally takes effect one year after enactment unless another date is specified.