The Honorable Brett Guthrie
Chairman
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Frank Pallone
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Guthrie and Ranking Member Pallone,

As organizations representing parents, families, and advocates across the country, we write to advocate for the passage of the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA). This commonsense legislation would give parents the tools they need to guide their children’s digital lives while protecting privacy.

Today, children can download virtually any app without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Apps require young users to agree to complex terms of service, often allowing access to age-inappropriate online experiences. Without this knowledge, parents are left out of the conversation entirely. This system fails families, leaving kids vulnerable to both unsafe content and privacy risks.

The App Store Accountability Act offers a simple solution by bringing security and verification to the app store level. App stores would verify a user’s age when they create an account. When a child wants to download an app, parents would receive a notification and can approve or deny the request, similar to how app stores already alert parents when their child attempts to make a purchase. Before granting consent, parents would receive clear information about what data the app collects and the app’s age rating. This approach empowers parents without burdening them, allowing families to manage their child’s app access in one place rather than navigating countless platforms.

Centralizing age verification at the app store also reduces privacy risks. Under the current system, and under proposals requiring app-by-app verification, families must hand over sensitive personal information to dozens of companies, each representing a potential point of data exposure. The App Store Accountability Act consolidates this process: verify age once at the app store, and individual apps simply receive confirmation of a user’s age category and parental consent status.

ALLvanza recently conducted a national poll among 1,150 registered voters with a focus on parents and Latino parents. The findings confirm that voters—particularly parents—strongly support legislation that requires parental approval for minors to download apps and to verify users’ ages. Eighty-two percent of voters support this legislation, including 85% of parents and 79% of Latino parents. The poll also shows that support plummets for alternative proposals that do not require parental approval and would only require app stores to collect users’ self-reported ages; just 28% of voters support this proposal, while 62% oppose it.

A uniform federal standard ensures all families receive the same protections regardless of where they live. There are many other well-intentioned proposals to protect kids online, but some fall short of the ASAA’s simplicity and efficacy. Some of the other proposals you are considering rely on users to self-report their own age, allowing children to easily bypass protections by falsely stating their age. Some of these same proposals don’t include any parental approval mechanisms at all, or the approval mechanisms they do include lack the simplicity and efficacy of the ASAA. Minimizing or shirking parental approval as a tool to protect teens online ignores what parents are clearly clamoring for. The App Store Accountability Act puts parents in control by requiring actual verification and parental approval, all in one centralized place, ensuring its protections actually work.

The App Store Accountability Act represents a constitutionally sound approach to protecting children online while respecting First Amendment rights. Unlike other recently challenged laws that directly regulate speech content on social media platforms, this legislation focuses on a simple procedural requirement: giving parents the tools to oversee their children’s app downloads. The bill doesn’t restrict what content can be shared, doesn’t favor certain viewpoints over others, and applies equally to all apps and app stores. Courts have consistently recognized that laws regulating conduct—rather than speech itself—receive more lenient constitutional review, and requiring parental consent for app downloads is fundamentally about conduct, not expression. There are no exemptions or carve-outs in the federal bill—something that has held up similar legislation in other states.

Parents across the country want centralized age verification and a simple approval mechanism. The App Store Accountability Act delivers exactly that: a practical, privacy-protective framework that puts parents back in control. We advocate for the passage of this legislation that will deliver meaningful protections for American families.

ALLvanza
AFT Arizona
ALANA Community Brain Trust
American Latino Veterans Association (ALVA), The
Aspira
Aware Now Media
Black History Project
Black Institute, The
Black Men of New York, Inc., 100
CA Consumer Voice
CA Families for Online Protections
California Parents for Public Virtual Education
Colorado Children’s Alliance
Colorado Children’s Campaign
E.R.I.C. Initiative Foundation
Equal Ground
Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses
Greater Chicagoland Black Chamber of Commerce
Health Care Advocacy Coalition of California
Hispanic 100
Interfaith Action Movement
Kempe Foundation
Legacy Coordination Network
Living Evergreen
MANA-A National Latina Organization
McBride Impact
National Hispanic Health Foundation
PA Unplugged
Parent Support for Online Learning
Plumaje
Prevention Action Alliance
Senior Voices NW
Source LGBT+ Center, The
Street Grace
Transplant Recipients International Organization
Urban Warriors
WA Health Equity Alliance
We the People for Education
Yankee Institute