The Utah legislature passed an age-verification bill on Wednesday requiring app store operations to verify the age of their users and require consent from the parents of minors before downloading an app.
The state became the first in the US to reach this point with such a law, the App Store Accountability Act, as many states grapple with evolving age verification requirements for social media platforms and how to protect young users online. Lawmakers in several states have proposed bills requiring app stores to verify children's ages through official identification or parental consent, but many have been blocked or failed to gain traction.
The bill now goes to Gov. Spencer Cox for his signature.
The act dovetails with Utah's efforts to require age verification on social media sites. It would put the burden onto mobile app stores to verify ages rather than relying on individual websites to do so – an approach social media platforms have long wanted.
In a joint statement, Meta, Snap and X said: "Parents want a one-stop shop to verify their child's age and grant permission for them to download apps in a privacy-preserving way. The app store is the best place for it, and more than a quarter of states have introduced bills recognizing the central role app stores play. We applaud Utah for putting parents in charge with its landmark legislation and urge Congress to follow suit."
It's unclear how Apple and Google will adapt their existing parental controls and policies to comply with the new law. Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last week, however, Apple introduced new child-safety measures affecting how minors' accounts are set up and what they can access in the App Store. This includes the ability for parents to update their child's account age if they previously set it incorrectly and more granular app age ratings. It also added a way for parents to consent to share their child's age range with app developers so they'll be shown more age-appropriate content in the App Store – but without disclosing exact birth dates or sensitive information.
"Because many kids in the U.S. don't have government-issued IDs, parents in the U.S. will have to provide even more sensitive documentation just to allow their child to access apps meant for children. That's not in the interest of user safety or privacy," Apple said in its online safety report published last week.
Aisling Dawson, an analyst at ABI Research, said the wider significance of this regulation should not be downplayed.
"While age verification by app developers is unlikely to be the panacea for limiting minor access to inappropriate content, Utah takes the lead in regulating this space," she said. "Other online age verification laws exist; however, these do not specifically mandate app developers to themselves be proactive in terms of age verification and application content."
She believes legal challenges are to be expected as Utah's new law triggers similar legislative movements in other states over the next couple of years. This may include legal issues such as how to define material that amounts to speech or expression which requires protection, how those curbing freedom of expression can provide evidence of harm caused by online content, and legal enforcement as it pertains to technical and privacy protections over data collected.
Some critics, meanwhile, argue that the latest change could still raise concerns around data privacy and freedom of speech.
Kerry Maeve Sheehan, the legal advocacy counsel at tech coalition Chamber of Progress, wrote in a blog post that the bill "tramples the constitutional rights of adults and kids."
"While the bill purports to protect minors from inappropriate content, it ultimately imposes sweeping restrictions on the free speech rights of all Utahns," she wrote. "SB 142 is not just a misguided law; it represents a major shift in how the states seek to control online speech, creating a dangerous precedent for digital freedoms."
But some organizations, such as the Digital Childhood Alliance, praised the bill as a significant milestone: "Utah is showing the country how to put kids and parents first," the organization tweeted. "This is a major step toward a safer online world for our children."
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