Last November, Meta's head of global safety proposed that Apple and Google take charge of age-gating and getting parental consent through their app stores. She wrote:
“Parents should approve their teen's app downloads, and we support federal legislation that requires app stores to get parents' approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps. With this solution, when a teen wants to download an app, app stores would be required to notify their parents, much like when parents are notified if their teen attempts to make a purchase. Parents can decide if they want to approve the download. They can also verify the age of their teen when setting up their phone, negating the need for everyone to verify their age multiple times across multiple apps.”
Here's the hole in that argument though: You don't need to use an app to access Facebook and Instagram. A teenager can sign up directly on the websites of either social media platform. So while it's true that Google and Apple could have an age-gating feature in place specifically for downloading the apps, that wouldn't preclude Meta from needing its own system too.
But regardless — Apple says “no” to the idea of verifying users' ages, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Apple says that websites and social media companies are best positioned to verify a user's age and that user privacy expectations would be violated if it was required to share the age of its users with third-party apps. Plus, Apple says it already provides tools for parents to control which apps their kids can and cannot install, and alleges that Meta is merely attempting to steer legislative responsibility away from itself and deflect attention from its challenges with child-safety issues.
I call malarkey on Apple's reasoning. To age-gate certain apps from being downloaded, Apple wouldn't have to share any information with the third-party app. Apple would simply prevent the underage user from downloading and installing the app in the first place. No info shared.
Meta asserts that verifying a child's age app-by-app isn't practical. A spokesperson said, “Rather than putting the onus on parents to upload sensitive information or provide proof of identity for their teen’s age for every single app their children use, app stores can provide a central place for families to do this.”
It certainly would be safer for Apple users to only share their personal information one time with Apple as opposed to with every app. Doesn't Apple claim similar privacy / safety reasons for why it requires all apps to collect payments through Apple Pay? Pick a lane, Apple.
Match Group, which owns Tinder, OKCupid, and other dating apps, also supports Meta's position, saying, “Kids are less safe when responsibility is limited only to developers.” (Of course, it's obvious why Match Group would want to abdicate the responsibility of verifying its users' ages to Apple.)
When state legislators in Louisiana were considering a bill that would make app stores responsible for age verification, Apple sent out a team of lobbyists to shut it down — a mission that it accomplished successfully, as that part of the bill was dropped.
Meanwhile Google is like… “Umm, we've got bigger problems on our hands.”
With neither Apple nor Meta's arguments solid in either direction — who's right? Should each individual app and social media company be responsible for verifying the ages of their users? Or should that responsibility fall on app stores? Hit reply and share your thoughts or join the convo on my LinkedIn post.