Utah becomes the first state to adopt the legislation requesting app stores to verify ages | News, sports, jobs

Salt Lake City – Utah Wednesday became the first state to adopt the law that required app stores to check the users ‘ages and get parents’ consent for minors to download applications on their devices.

The draft law fought to the Spencer Cox Government Office put it Metathat operates Facebook and Instagram, against the giant App Store Apple and Google over whom it should be responsible for checking ages. Similar invoices have been introduced in at least eight other states in the last fight for the online safety of children. The proposals that concern the app stores follow legal fights for laws that impose social platforms to verify users’ ages.

Meta and others Social Media Companies claim to put onus in app stores to check the ages due to criticisms that they do not make enough to make their products safe for children – or to check if no child under 13 uses them.

“Parents want a unique store to verify their child’s age and grant their permission to download applications in a confidentiality conservation. The App Store is the best place for it, “said Meta, X and Snap Inc. in a common statement on Wednesday. “We applaud Utah because he put his parents in the leadership of his landmark and to urge the Congress to follow his process.”

Application stores say that app developers are better equipped to manage age verification and other safety measures. The request for applications stores to confirm the ages will make all users teach sensitive identification information, such as driving license, passport, credit card or social security number, even if they do not want to use a small age application, Apple said.

“Because many US children do not have Government IDs, US parents will have to provide even more sensitive documentation to allow their child to access applications for children. This is not in the interest of users’ confidentiality or confidentiality, ”said the company in its latest Online safety report.

Apple considers age a confidentiality problem and allows users to decide if they reveal it. The company offers parents the option to establish age -appropriate parameters for applications download. The Google Play store does the same.

Apple and Google are among a litany of technological companies that help support the Chamber of Progress, a group of technological policies that lobby on Utah MPs to reject the bill. Last year, Apple helped kill a similar bill in Louisiana, who would have asked the app stores to help apply age restrictions.

Kori Marshall, a spokesman for the Chamber of Progress, called the measure “an extraordinary defeat of individual private life”, which he said puts a heavy burden for applications stores to ensure online safety.

The Republican Senator Todd Weiler, the sponsor of the bill, claimed that it is “much easier to target two application stores than to target 10,000 (app) developers.”

According to the invoice, app stores should request age information when someone creates an account. If a minor tries to open one, the draft law directs the App Store to connect to their parent’s account and may request an identity form to confirm its identity. Weiler said a credit card could be used as an age verification tool in most cases.

If a child tries to download an application that allows purchases in the application or asks them to agree to the Terms and Conditions, the parent will first have to approve.

Melissa McKay, a mother from Utah, is among those who pushed for legislation. She said she started asking questions about the safety of the device after her 2017 nephew was exposed to “truly harmful content on another student’s device.” Inaccurate age assessments on parents’ applications and controls are “the basis of online damage,” McKay said.

The other eight states who believe that proposals would similarly put responsibility in app stores to check ages and request parental permissions. A legislative committee advanced the draft law in Alabama last week.

The processes have delayed the implementation of state laws that regulate applications and social media websites. A federal judge in 2024 temporarily blocked The first law of the nation in Utah, which requires socializing companies to verify the ages of all users and place restrictions on accounts belonging to minors.

If Cox signs the Utah Law draft, most of the provisions would take effect on May 7. The governor’s office did not respond to the E -mails that seek comments on Wednesday. COX, Republican, has supported the state of the state at present, which requires the verification of age on social media.

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Reporter Associated Press, Kim Chandler, contributed from Montgomery, Alabama.