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Governor Jeff Landry recently signed the App Store Accountability Act, requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before allowing minors under 18 to download apps or make in-app purchases. Louisiana Family Forum Director Gene Mills says many don’t realize that when minors download apps, they are entering into a contractual terms of service.
“Literally, you have big tech titans making deals with kids who have no power or legal authority to provide informed consent to download that app.”
Mills says the law mandates that features like “Ask to Buy” be enabled by default for minors, and app stores must share users’ age categories with developers.
“They have the data to do that, and that’s the reason we chose the app store at the point of entry and the point of decision. There’s no breach of information. There’s no privacy concern. It’s simply a transactional decision.”
The bipartisan legislation aims to enhance parental oversight and child safety online, following earlier failed attempts to regulate app store practices. Mills says the idea of age verification was pioneered here in Louisiana.
“and it was tested in the U.S. Supreme Court last week in the Texas law that mimics our age verification for porn and it was upheld 6 to 3.”
